McCurdy Charter School will not play its second football game of the season at home this Saturday against Cuba High School as planned.
Head coach Ron Gallegos has decided to forfeit his team’s week 2 matchup against the Rams due to the 1-game suspension handed down to Nikko Valdez today after Gallegos, Valdez, his mother and McCurdy athletic director Christian Lopez met with the New Mexico Activities Association today for a hearing in Albuquerque after a fight broke out in last week’s home game against Cloudcroft High School.
“Nikko Valdez got a 1-game suspension and the other two were cleared,” Gallegos said when asked about the outcome of the hearing with Association executive director Sally Marquez. “There’s a lot of reasons (to forfeit), but most of all it’s a safety factor.”
Without Valdez, a key member among the offensive and defensive line, and the injury to Brandon Lovato that also happened last week, McCurdy would just have 15 players available to suit up on Saturday.
An altercation broke out during the last three minutes of the Bobcats’ season-opener against Cloudcroft last week when receiver Ernesto Martinez was shoved down after the whistle by a Cloudcroft player after a pass interference call, which ignited a brawl between the teams near the Bears’ sideline.
Valdez, Martinez and Michael Trujillo were all ejected, which automatically brings a 1-game suspension, but Martinez and Trujillo’s suspensions were overturned after the Association reviewed video that showed they committed no wrongdoing.
Gallegos is not happy about losing a game without even stepping onto the field, but knows the safety of his team is of the utmost importance.
“Sure, it’s devastating,” he said about the decision to forfeit. “I’d like to finish out the whole season without a forfeit and if we’re going to lose we’re going to lose the right way. We’ll go on as if things are normal, we still practiced all week an will practice today as if we had the game tomorrow.”
McCurdy should resume play at 1 p.m., next Saturday in the third game of a four-game home-stand to host Santa Fe Indian School (0-2), who lost last night to Pojoaque Valley High School, 36-23.