ARTESIA

Artesia beats Roswell to capture 32nd state football title

ARTESIA – The winning team had a 91-yard touchdown pass, scored on a stunning fourth-and-15, and hit another unexpected TD on a 29-yard throw on second-and-goal. The Artesia Bulldogs will long remember the events that unfolded over these 48 minutes.

But probably not as much as the only stat that truly mattered, the one they were most fervently chasing:

32.

Second-seeded Artesia’s 35-21 victory over No. 1 Roswell on Saturday afternoon locked up the program’s 32nd state championship, as Artesia beat the Coyotes for the Class 5A state football championship before an overflow crowd at historic Bulldog Bowl.

“Here, we do things a little different. High school is just 10th, 11th, 12th. When we came in three years ago, this was our first group,” Artesia

coach Jeremy Maupin said. “To finish back-to-back means so much for those guys.”

Artesia (12-1) avenged its only regular-season loss and handed Roswell its first loss after the Coyotes won 12 straight to start the year.

One of those 12 was a 29-8 win over Artesia up the road at Wool Bowl six weeks ago.

Artesia had myriad red zone issues that night. There was none of that Saturday, largely because the Bulldogs struck on so many big plays in their pass game that they hardly spent any time at all inside the Roswell 20 in the rematch. Artesia led 21-7 at halftime, for example, without having run a single snap in the red zone.

Senior quarterback Nye Estrada threw for 295 yards on just 14 completions, including five touchdowns, all of them at least 25 yards in distance, and a couple of them outright stunners to the prospects of both teams. Estrada’s scoring passes covered 35, 45, 91, 25 and 29 yards.

“Last time, we weren’t completing anything,” Estrada said. “They were shutting us down all game. Since then we’ve been working like crazy … and it paid off.”

Ethan Conn caught Estrada’s

first two scoring passes, Juan Diego Duran the last three.

Conn caught a 35-yard scoring pass on the game’s first drive, completing a 7-play, 80-yard drive.

“It’s kind of ironic,” Conn said. “We took a lot of long shots last game, and it didn’t work out for us.”

Roswell grabbed a 7-6 lead late in the quarter two plays after the Coyotes blocked an Artesia punt and had to go only 18 yards. Quarterback Manny Fuentez — who would later leave this game on a cart after being knocked unconscious in the fourth quarter — scored on a 4-yard run.

The Bulldogs scored twice in the final 3 ½ minutes of the first half to seize momentum. Frankie Galindo had a key 5-yard gain on fourth-and-3 from midfield, and on the next play, Estrada tossed a 45-yard TD pass to Conn with 3:23 to go before half. With a 2-point run from Estrada (the same play the Bulldogs ran on the fourth-and-5), it was 14-7 Artesia.

Just 66 seconds before halftime, and after forcing a Roswell punt, Estrada threw a high ball up the near sideline. Duran ran under it, shed a tackler near midfield, and completed a 91-yard touchdown for a 21-7 halftime lead.

“Nye played really well, he came in and threw the ball well, found open receivers,” said Maupin, whose Bulldogs beat Piedra Vista in the 2022 5A final. “The big difference was, we just made the plays this time.

We got them out of their rhythm and that’s what we were trying to do.”

Roswell came into the game having allowed only 84 points all season.

The Coyotes’ best and most timely drive of the day, opening the second half, went 82 yards, with Bryce Sanchez doing a majority of the work. He rushed for 58 yards on eight carries on that drive alone, including the final 3 as Roswell cut the deficit in half to 21-14. Sanchez finished with 118 yards on 20 carries.

On Artesia’s next drive, Estrada, running around trying to extend a play, finally connected with Duran on a borderline desperation 25-yard touchdown pass — on fourth-and-15 — as the Bulldogs reclaimed a two-TD lead.

But Roswell was far from finished.

Estrada’s only mistake of the game was a significant one, an ill-advised backleg throw that became a pick-6 for the Coyotes as Xai Carrasco took an easy interception 80 yards for a score. When it looked like a driving Artesia might go in front commandingly at 35-14, instead Roswell’s defense counterpunched, and the lead was only 28-21 near the end of the third quarter.

Early in the fourth, a 58-yard punt return by Artesia’s Jesse Armendariz led to a 29-yard scoring toss from Estrada to Duran. It was second and goal, and this was the score, midway through the quarter, that extinguished Roswell’s chances. Artesia found a way throughout, the opposite of the first encounter against the Coyotes.

“We didn’t make plays on those balls when we needed to,” Roswell coach Jeff Lynn said of the long Artesia TD passes.

Meanwhile, Fuentez was knocked down several times Saturday. The last time, Lynn said, he briefly lost consciousness. He was down about 15 minutes before being loaded onto a cart.

“I think he’s gonna be fine,” Lynn said.

Of the game, Lynn added, “We had some things go our way in the first game, they had the things go their way (today).”

The Artesia defense was the better of the two units this time, and the Bulldogs sacked Fuentez five times.

“Man, you can’t really describe (the emotions of winning state),” Artesia senior linebacker Diego Wesson said. “They wrote us off. But we kept receipts and we did it.”

And the Bulldog offense took it to heart having been shut out by Roswell in the first meeting.

“Oh yeah,” Duran said, smiling. “For sure.”

The team in second place on New Mexico’s all-time list, Lovington, on Saturday claimed its 20th state title with a convincing win at Portales in the Class 4A final.