ARTICLE BY GABRIEL MARTINEZ
Albuquerque, New Mexico-On a nice sunny afternoon April 26, the UNM Lobos hosted their annual Spring football game at University Stadium.
The final: Team Silver 17, Team Cherry 14.
After going 9-4 in Jason Eck’s debut, the Lobos are projected as one of the top contenders for the 2026-27 Mountain West crown.
“Pressure’s a privilege, and I think we’ve earned that,” Coach Eck said in a post-game presser. “I’ll be disappointed if we’re not a conference championship team.”
Throughout the first half, it was a tale of the defenses. We saw two safeties from the Team Cherry defense.
The first safety came way of a Hayes Baum TFL, and the other safety came because the quarterback stepped out of bounds (Thomas Pettus made a nice tackle that would’ve been a safety too). Both Baum and Pettus come from local high schools: Baum is from Cibola, and Pettus from Volcano Vista.
It was also a no-fly zone for Team Silver who record three interceptions: one of which was a goal line interception made by Frankie Edwards III, the other interception a pick-six made by CJ McBean, and with a minute thirty left in the second half, safety Nick Wheeler recorded a the game’s second pick-six.
On the offensive side of the ball, running back Cameron Mathews was a standout for Team Cherry, having some explosive runs including a 40-yard plus carry, he would punch it in for six on the next play.
Heading into the second half, Team Silver’s defense kept its string of dominance going, as they recorded a sack on one drive, and on the following drive they recorded another interception the next drive on defense they recorded another interception making it their fourth interception of the game at that point. This one coming from Jahmir Torres.
Despite wearing full pads and doing walk throughs of each play, Jack Layne did not in this game.
The rest of the Lobo quarterbacks saw action inlcuding Cade Mitchell, Luke Moga, Toa Fa’avae, and Gabriel Motschenbacher. The only quarterback to not throw an interception was early enrollee Cade Mitchell. However, a positive to note, is each quarterback showed some chops in scrambing and rushing for some extra yardage. Moga had a couple of nice bucket throws inbetween a couple of defenders.
Near the end of this game, Team Cherry tied things up with a 39-yard Nicholas Romero field goal to make this game 14-14.
With two minutes left on the clock, the Silver offense went three-and-out. Cherry trotted their offense out to for a potential game-winning drive. However, safety CJ McBean recorded his second interception of the game (off a Fa’avae pass) giving the ball right back to Silver.
Thanks to the legs of QB Gabriel Motschenbacher, Team Silver was able to get plenty of positive yards, and keep a running clock. Enter in kicker Grant Glasgow who had the game-winning field goal from 39-yards out.
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