McCurdy School freshman quarterback Louie Martinez continued to impress fans with his passing ability Sept. 13 at home, when he led the Bobcats to their second consecutive win. Completing 16 passes in 27 attempts, Martinez threw for 297 yards and four touchdowns in the Bobcats’ 28-7 beating of the Santa Fe Indian School Braves.
After a scoreless first quarter, it was the Braves who scored first. After recovering a Bobcat fumble on McCurdy’s 10-yard line, Indian School punched the ball into the end zone and kicked the extra point to take a 7-0 lead.
McCurdy came right back and answered with a big play. Running back Devin Duran took a short shovel pass from Martinez and turned it into an 80-yard touchdown run. Ron DeVargas kicked the extra point to tie the score.
The Bobcats threatened to score again with 1:30 left to play in the first half, but McCurdy’s Kevin Redman fumbled at the Braves’ three-yard line. The half ended in a 7-7 deadlock.
The second half belonged to the Bobcats.
“We took advantage of some mismatches we had on defense,” McCurdy coach Eric Vigil said. “We felt there had been some points we’d left out on the field.”
In the third quarter, Martinez found receiver Shane Archuleta for an 11-yard touchdown pass to give the Bobcats a 14-7 lead. Kevin Redman caught a 53-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter and Archuleta added his second touchdown on a 19-yard pass from Martinez.
The Bobcats have racked up 109 points in their first three games and are 2-1 on the season. The spread offense initiated by former assistant coach Jesus Maes (who now coaches for Escalante High School) has been putting up a lot of points.
“More teams are going to it,” Vigil said. “It’s been generating a lot of yards.”
McCurdy and its spread offense will face a stern test Saturday, when the Class A Bobcats host defending Class A state champion Fort Sumner. The Foxes are 3-0 and they blasted Capitan 58-8 Sept. 12.
According to Vigil, the Foxes called and wanted a game with the Bobcats.
“It’s nice to know that our program has generated enough respect to where they want to play us,” Vigil said. ““We consider it a tremendous opportunity to play a team of that caliber and the players feel that it’s a tremendous challenge.”