Rattlers fall to NMMI

Tucumcari’s football team played better than it had in weeks but still didn’t have an answer for jump-starting its stalled offense during a 30-0 season-ending loss Friday at district foe New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell.

The Rattlers, an injury-depleted team that ended the season with a 1-9 record and 0-3 in District 4, lost its last eight games, including its final five by lopsided shutouts.

But Friday’s game showed progress in Tucumcari moved the ball twice beyond its 50-yard line on rushing plays. The game also didn’t end early by mercy rule like several previous contests.

“We had some success on offense,” Tucumcari coach Wayne Ferguson said. “We just couldn’t punch it in.”

Tucumcari’s defense also forced three fumbles, recovering two. The Rattlers also made an interception to snuff out another drive for the Colts, who improved to 6-4, 1-2. Regardless, NMMI held a 24-0 lead by halftime.

Ferguson said his Rattlers were motivated to play better for the seniors in their last football game.

“I talked to the seniors before the game; they’d been with us for four years,” Ferguson said. “This season didn’t finish the way we’d wanted. We played for them, and I think that motivated the rest of the team a little bit. You always hate to see seniors leave, but that’s part of the game.

“We actually played pretty well at times,” he continued. “The difference in the game was NMMI had a lot more speed than we had, with all our injuries. I’m pretty sure if we had our full team, that was a game we could have won.”

Ferguson also threw caution to the wind several times by refusing to punt on fourth down.

“We really didn’t have anything to lose,” he said. “We had some fourth-and-shorts, and we were playing decent defense at times. I wanted to show confidence in the kids; it just didn’t work out.

“We even had a couple of plays drawn up to try to draw the defense offsides, but with the inexperience we have at several positions, we just didn’t execute when we needed to on those.”

Officials suspended the game for nearly 30 minutes in the third quarter after Tucumcari wide receiver and safety Ryan Birch suffered what turned out to be a sprained neck during a helmet-to-helmet collision. Fearing a serious neck injury, emergency medical technicians took care to strap him down before taking him to a Roswell hospital. He was released later that evening.

Ferguson said the delay was so long, officials allowed the teams to warm up again before resuming play. Both coaches also agreed to a running clock afterward.

Ferguson said he hasn’t decided whether he’ll return for his 10th season as Rattlers head coach.

“There’s no timeline right now,” he said. “I’m going to relax for the next couple of weeks, then make a decision sometime in the future. The rough season doesn’t really have a whole lot to do with it. This is my 29th year in education. I’m making plans for the future that have really nothing to do with how this season has gone.”