Nusenda Stadium, Oct. 3—The Albuquerque Academy football team was defeated by the St. Pius football team 35-21. The brutalist stadium on the western edge of town was attended by a moderate audience on both sides, but more notably two bands that competed to be the loudest.
The first quarter started out with a touchdown by Pius. Academy retaliated with a touchdown made by running back Ryan Williams ‘26, making the score by the end of the quarter 7-7. The second quarter started with an amazingly lucky play by the Pius Quarterback. The Pius Quarterback made a pass that bounced the ball off an Academy player’s helmet into the hands of a fortunate Pius player. But, this play was not helpful to Pius as they didn’t end up scoring on the drive, later leading to a touchdown by wide receiver Jett Galles ‘25 for Academy. The half ended with Academy leading 14-7. The second half led the teams back into a stalemate with Pius scoring a touchdown, making the score tied at 14. Quarter 4 would be the one that Pius would outperform Academy and end the game in Pius’s favor. Jett Galles ended up adding another touchdown for the Chargers, but this could not compare to the three touchdowns by Pius.
Why did this defeat happen? According to football enthusiast and Academy student Timo Maez ‘26, “The [odds were not in the favor of the Chargers] and I see why.” William Braun ‘27 states Maez, “is one of the more talented quarterbacks I’ve seen at [Academy], but at the end of the day [the team] didn’t block for him, the defense wasn’t there, and they let Saint Pius rally in the fourth quarter.”
What will this defeat mean for the season? Maez says, “Unfortunately, if Manzano wins [the next team Academy plays], the Chargers will drop to last place in 4A football.” Currently Academy has not yet won a district game and has an overall record of 2-4. Besides the data, Maez thinks that Academy has to “clutch up and win these next two games to get a chance [to make the playoffs]. They have to focus on the next two weeks.”
Besides the defeat on the field, the Academy wielded a more musically passionate edge in the form of thePep Band. Compared to Pius, the entire Academy band took up seven rows in the stadium while the Pius band only took up a mere three. Mr. Corbin, the conductor of this band says “we definitely got more members here tonight, of course it’s whoever is available on any given night, but we brought more people tonight.” In the current lineup of songs Mr. Corbin states “there’s something for everyone.”
Update: The Academy Chargers destroyed Manzano in their most recent game on Oct. 12 with a score of 57-26. Record for the season is 3-4 currently.
Next game will be Friday Oct. 18 with the Chargers going up against the Silver Fighting Colts.
