The Socorro Warriors football team thanks the fans who traveled to Albuquerque on April 1 to watch their bowl game against Dexter. The Warriors won 48–14 at University Stadium.
Caitie Ihrig | El Defensor Chieftain photos

The Socorro Warriors football team traveled to Albuquerque on April 1 where they defeated the Dexter Demons 48–14 in the 3A State Bowl Championship game.

“It’s still surreal,” Soocrro quarterback Nate Fresquez said after the game. “I’ve been dreaming about this since freshman year and all of the hard work and everything, it came together. It’s crazy right now. Not everything has set in yet.”

The bowl game was played at University Stadium, a stadium Fresquez has played in before when he played for the Youth American Football League. For the majority of the Warriors, this was their first time playing there.

“It felt like a dream,” Jordan Armijo said. “I never thought that I would be playing here.”

Socorro didn’t have as much time to prepare for the game as they normally would due to it being on a Thursday instead of a Saturday. Interim head coach Al Ocampo said the team practiced on Monday and Tuesday and then did their walkthrough on Wednesday.

Adadrian Jackson makes the catch while being blocked by three Dexter players during the Warriors win on April 1.

“We let the kids rest after last Saturday’s ball game,” he said. “That was the big deal — just making sure that mentally we were in the game, we knew our assignments, we knew the scouting report. As you can see from the scoreboard and what happened, they did. They got it down.”

The Warriors added points to the board first with 11:33 left in the second quarter when Fresquez ran for the touchdown after Michael McDaniel ran the ball on the punt return to the 28-yard line.

Dexter wasted no time at all as Peyton Greathouse caught the ball around the 30-yard line with 10:33 left in the half and ran it down the field for a touchdown. The Demons made the point-after attempt to go ahead 7–6.

The rest of the first half was all Socorro as with just under six minutes remaining, Dexter fumbled the ball allowing the Warriors to start their possession on the 24-yard line. Fresquez passed the ball to Adadrian Jackson who caught it around the 50-yard line and ran for the touchdown to reclaim the lead.

Socorro scored their third touchdown of the second with under 20 seconds left to play after another pass from Fresquez to Jackson. The Warriors attempted a two-point conversion, but a Dexter flag on the play gave them another chance. Armijo ran the ball into the endzone to add two points to the board, making it a 20–7 game.

“It was exciting,” Jackson said about his touchdowns. “I got a great quarterback, great linemen. I can’t thank them enough. I just ran my route and we had fun out there. We all played as a team and everything went good.”

The Warriors received the ball to start off the third and on fourth-and-7 from the 28-yard line, a pass from Fresquez to Marcus Armijo allowed Socorro to extend their lead. With a good point-after-attempt, the Warriors were ahead 27–7.

Nate Fresquez runs through two Dexter defenders during the second quarter of the Warriors 48–14 win.

A minute later, another Dexter fumble led to Socorro adding more points to the board. The Warriors recovered the fumble around the 20-yard- line and on third down Jordan Armijo ran for the touchdown. The point-after-attempt was good to make the score 34–7.

With just under seven minutes left in the third, the Demons fumbled on their punt return and the Warriors recovered it on the 28-yard-line. Jordan Armijo received the ball on third-and-10 and ran for another touchdown. After a good point-after-attempt, the Warriors extended their lead to 34 points.

Socorro’s final touchdown of the game came with two minutes left in the third and the ball on the 28-yard-line. Fresquez handed the ball to Jordan Armijo who ran it in and then the Warriors made their point-after-attempt.

“All the credit for my touchdowns go to my offensive line,” Jordan Armijo said. “All I had to do was run.”

The Demons scored with 1:49 left in the third from the 36-yard-line to make the final score 48–14.

While Fresquez was an integral part of the game, he said all of the credit goes to his team.

“My team, I feel like honestly, my team did most of the work,” he said. “They protect for me at quarterback. My line works so hard. When I give it to my lineback, I know he is going to run as hard as he can. All my wide receivers are going to do their best to get to the ball. I give all the credit to my team. I was just trying to do my job, but they all held it together doing theirs too. All the credit goes to my team.”