CLASS A FOOTBALL: JAL ROLLS PAST MCCURDY SCHOOL.

Byline: GEOFF GRAMMER 

ESPANOLA -- The McCurdy School football team was worried about what No. 1 Clayton might do to them in the semifinals of the Class A state football playoffs.

While the fourth-seeded Bobcats apparently spent the past week looking ahead to next week's semifinals, the No. 5 Jal Panthers spent Saturday afternoon running circles around a shell-shocked McCurdy defense in a 53-19 A quarterfinal win at Martinez Field.

"I think because we beat them

last year maybe, we started thinking about playing Clayton and forgot how good Jal is," said McCurdy sophomore quarterback Louie Martinez, who ran for 110 yards and threw for 150 and three touchdowns, but also had three turnovers.

Jal, a team McCurdy knocked off in the 2008 A quarterfinals, ran for 426 yards and took advantage of six McCurdy turnovers in a game marred by 30 penalties, a McCurdy player being ejected for throwing a punch in the second half and four second-half McCurdy unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.

Each team was flagged 15 times -- Jal for 102 yards, McCurdy for 125.

"Our offense relies so much rhythm, those penalties really took us out of that," said McCurdy head coach Eric Vigil. "A lot of what we were doing, we were shooting ourselves in the foot. That was uncharacteristic to what we had been about all season long."

The Panthers (6-4) jumped on McCurdy (6-4) early and often, scoring on their first three possessions for a 21-0 lead just 7 seconds into the second quarter.

When Saxxon Artalejo recovered a fumbled punt snap in the McCurdy end zone with 1:26 left in the first half, Jal was already up four touchdowns.

"I looked up at the scoreboard and it was 27-0 and I just shook my head," Vigil said. "It was hard to believe what was happening."

The Bobcats regrouped, scoring on a 29-yard Martinez to Carlos Herrera touchdown pass, cutting the lead to

27-7 with 31 seconds before the half.

The momentum carried over to the third quarter when senior Lucas Akes took the opening kickoff 56 yards to the Jal 24. Two plays later, Martinez hit Herrera for a 13 yard touchdown pass with 11:28 left in the third, cutting the lead to 27-13.

"It was looking pretty good right about then," Vigil said. "But we just couldn't come up with a stop on defense."

Jal's run game -- Artalejo ran for 145 yards and had four touchdowns, Thompson for 202 and two scores -- extended the lead to 53-13 before Martinez found senior Ryan Bustos for a 5-yard touchdown pass with

1:17 left in the game to finish the scoring, and the McCurdy season, with a 53-19 playoff loss.

"I kept fighting until the end,"

Bustos said. "It's frustrating to play

all season one way then come out here in your last game and have it go like this."

Contact Geoff Grammer at 986-3060 or [e-mail]. Read his blog at grammerschoolblog.com.