Crownpoint Eagles emerge as triumphant victors in wild 38-36 triple overtime finish

NEWCOMB, N.M.

Crownpoint fumbled away the opening kickoff.

They finished the game with five more turnovers and amassed 115 yards in penalties. Still the Eagles emerged as the triumphant victor in a wild 38-36 triple overtime finish over Newcomb last Friday night in a district opener for both teams.

“What a game,” an exasperated Crownpoint coach Harlan Manuelito said. “This was a huge win and we knew we had to bring our ‘A’ game but we still made some mistakes. We shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times but we knew that we could stop them.”

Crownpoint cornerback Noah Manuelito came up with a huge tackle in the final overtime to preserve the win for the Eagles. Manulito stopped Deondre Begay from tying the game at the 1-yard line as the Newcomb quarterback was attempting a two-point conversion.

“We were going to win this game no matter what it took,” Manuelito said. “We came here with a mission and we successfully did it. I am proud of my team and everybody on my team has a lot of heart.”

As for the key tackle, the Crownpoint senior deduced that Newcomb was going to run up the middle even though the Skyhawks did a rather good job of misdirecting the Eagles.

“I made a gut guess and I made the stop when he went up to my arms,” Manuelito said.

Harlan said Manuelito made a huge save but his team was prepped to go into a fourth overtime where both teams would be required to start kicking the ball.

“We were prepared for that because we started to implement a kicking game,” the Crownpoint coach said.

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