Set up by a 31-yard completion to Rylan Maez, with Maez turning a one-yard catch into a big-gainer along Ignacio’s sideline behind fellow senior receiver Devante Montoya’s blocking, sophomore quarterback Zane Pontine’s one-yard touchdown plunge two plays later ultimately proved the difference in a season-ending 14-6 win Friday, Oct. 27, at Del Norte. 

“Devante comes to me and he goes, ‘Coach, they’re moving back on us; that quick is open!’” IHS head coach Alfonso ‘Ponch’ Garcia explained. “We have a ‘quick’ for all receivers and … I actually called one for Devante; the second was for Rylan because he’s bigger and can plow people over, especially when they had smaller corners.” 

“The wind … took a lot of our game away; we were planning to pass the ball and do a lot of fun stuff for the kids today, and we didn’t get the opportunity to do such things,” he said. “It was about who ran the ball the hardest – a battle in the trenches today. And it was a very balanced game, well-battled by both sides.” 

Junior Charley Pargin’s point-after kick, however, was no good and with 5:11 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Bobcats led by just eight points. And after setting up offensively at their own 22-yard line with 5:07 left, the Tigers showed that the guests’ advantage might not be enough as senior quarterback Jace Pacheco hit senior Cody Worz for 24 yards on first down. 

Pacheco then kept the football and reached the DN 48, but a holding penalty pushed the home team back ten yards, and IHS senior Elliott Hendren then barged into Del Norte’s backfield the very next play and sacked Pacheco for a drive-killing eight-yard loss. Pacheco then threw incomplete to freshman Jeremiah McComas, and DNHS head coach Austin McDonald – a former Tiger standout already a decade removed from a couple huge efforts against the Bobcats – was faced with a difficult choice: 

Attempt to move the chains on fourth-and-long, or punt and then hope his motivated defense could come up big once more and perhaps earn the offense one final series — with roughly 90 seconds left. After all, the Tiger defense had, after halftime, forced one Ignacio punt, stopped IHS’ next two drives on downs (senior Craig Williams halted one at the DN 8 with a strong hit on Pontine), and ended the Bobcats’ very next possession by recovering a Lincoln deKay fumble at the DN 18. 

McDonald chose to kick, and sophomore Paul Neal punted away from Montoya – a wise move – but out of bounds, giving the ’Cats good field position at their own 41 with 3:00 remaining. 

And deKay immediately atoned for the aforementioned giveaway, rumbling forward for 18 authoritative yards on first down and effectively ruining McDonald’s plans. A false-start infraction then pushed IHS back to the Del Norte 46, but deKay then charged ahead for six, and with 1:32 left in the game, McDonald had no choice but burn the first of his two remaining timeouts. 

“The run game was going pretty good,” said deKay. “They didn’t really wrap up when they tackled, so as long as your feet kept moving, you’d just keep going forward.” 

“I told the coaches … I’m going to call a Lincoln play, a counter,” Garcia said, explaining deKay’s long run into Tiger territory. “They’ll think that we’re going to throw the ball to our three-receiver side, and … he just ran his butt off and made it happen! Actually … it was funny; we’d made the same call when he fumbled.” 

Coming out of the pause, Pontine then threw to Maez for three yards, and deKay then powered ahead for another six. McDonald then used his last timeout with just 40.4 ticks left, but with deKay’s most recent carry having earned Ignacio a new set of downs, all the ’Cats had to do was make sure the next exchange from senior center Cruz Martinez to Pontine was textbook. 

It was, and just to ensure that IHS wouldn’t have to snap again in ‘victory formation,’ Pontine took an extra second or two to kneel down with the ball, even if it meant taking a two-yard loss back to the DN 33. 

Recovering from a 38-6 home loss to Centauri the previous week, the ’Cats ended the 2023 season standing 4-5 overall, and a third-place 3-2 in the 1A South Central. Finishing fourth in conference, Del Norte dropped to 3-6, 2-3. 

“That was our Senior Night,” Garcia said ruefully, recalling the CHS game, “so it was like … hopefully we can show up this week to play. And it’s like I told them: Accept the challenge. If you play as hard as you can, in my heart you don’t lose. When you give your all out there, how can you lose?” 

“We’ve been through tough times and today we put it together, more or less,” said Martinez. “It was fun being out there.” 

The early goings at DNHS, however, were tense as neither team could put points up on the scoreboard. The ’Cats appeared to have something of an edge, as during the scoreless first quarter they both intercepted (by sophomore Gabe Archuleta) a Pacheco pass and recovered (by freshman Stephen Habel) a Neal fumble. But the Tigers would regain possession with fewer than 30 seconds left when Worz intercepted Pontine at the Bobcat 47. 

Nothing came of the pick, and the two sides swapped punts the next six series. Ending that sequence, Neal kicked from the Bobcat 48 after IHS senior Wade Dunbar flattened Pacheco on back-to-back plays for a total loss of 13 yards, and Habel would then kick from out of his own end zone after Ignacio was fortunate Pontine wasn’t called for a grounding penalty while barely avoiding being sacked for a safety by DNHS’ Lashawn Trujillo. 

Habel’s kick netted 20 yards, but a face-mask penalty against the ’Cats set the Tigers up at IHS’ 11 with 2:30 left in the second quarter, and Pacheco promptly connected with Neal for the game’s first score. But Worz, the designated PAT holder, had to vie for a two-point conversion instead due to a bad snap, and Habel deflected his attempted pass – keeping the score Del Norte 6, Ignacio 0 with 2:25 left until intermission. 

After Habel was summoned to punt yet again, IHS at last answered when Montoya intercepted Pacheco and took the takeaway 55 yards along the Tigers’ sideline to paydirt. Pargin then came in to toe the PAT, but a faulty snap pressed Pontine into a similar hurried situation as Worz. However, Pontine held his nerve just long enough to draw as many black-and-orange jerseys his way, then zipped a throw to an unguarded, statue-still Maez for an 8-6 advantage with just 1:13 remaining until the break. 

“I said, ‘Guys, we need a(nother) turnover! A turnover’s going to determine what the game’s going to be like,’” Garcia said. “We needed to pick our game up and sure enough, D came up with the big interception! So that was pretty nice.”