Santa Fe Rugby Santos Win at Home

Los Santos 39, Brujos 27

March 26, 2022

March 2, 2021

Santa Fe’s Santos Rugby Club stormed to a 39-27 home victory over the Albuquerque
Brujos at the Municipal Rugby Complex Saturday, avenging a 25-15 road loss to the same
club two weekends before.

Santa Fe’s set of seven backs showed fluidity in running and passing, especially in the
first half.

Their eight forwards also demonstrated overall superiority over their rivals, particularly in the
set scrums, although a handful of opportunities to convert their advantage into points were
missed.

The hosts showed their best form of the season in the game’s opening 25 minutes,
scoring three five-point tries (touchdowns), each converted into seven points scores through
accurate conversion kicks by flyhalf Mark Woodward.

Six minutes in, silky fullback Isaiah Sanchez took a well-timed pass from center Jaime
Terrazas to score untouched. At 19 minutes Santos captain Ryan Weir scored another
converted try after his team worked the ball close to the try line. Five minutes later Santa Fe’s
giant prop Dylan Merrigan proved unstoppable in a near-identical situation, and once again
Woodward’s kick found the range.

Down 21-0, the Brujos finally broke through Santa Fe’s defense for a long passing
movement after 29 minutes, but a diving tackle by Isaiah Sanchez set up a successful tryline
stand by the Santos to deny a potential score. The Santos muffed a drop kick from their own
line, however, resulting in an unconverted Brujos try and a 21-5 score.

Just before halftime the Brujos kept possession of the ball through several rucks (post-
tackle contests) before exploiting a gap on Santa Fe’s right side to score another unconverted
try for a 21-10 halftime score.

The Duke City team closed to within 21-17 with a short-range, converted try just a
minute into the game’s second half. Los Santos answered seven minutes later when center
Ben Schlappi barreled over in the right corner to complete a penalty play close to the visitors’
line. Woodward kept his conversion kicking record spotless with a difficult completion from a
steep angle and Santa Fe eased out to 28-17. The Hong Kong native then increased Santa
Fe’s lead to 31-17 with a three-point penalty kick in the 27 th minute.

With 10 minutes to play Santo scrumhalf Mateo Cardiel, a Los Alamos youth rugby
product, increased his team’s lead to 36-17 with a 95-meter sprint from a penalty play just
five meters from Santa Fe’s line. Another Woodward penalty kick four minutes later seemed
to seal the Brujos’ fate as the Santos lead ballooned to 39-17.

Yet as in their loss to the Brujos two weeks earlier, Los Santos ran low on steam in the
game’s final minutes, allowing their opponents repeated breakthroughs and two more
converted tries for a final tally of Santa Fe 39, Brujos 27.

Los Santos will return a visit from El Paso’s Scorpion Rugby Club next Saturday, April
2. The Scorps beat Santa Fe 27-21 on March 19.