Mountainair QB Martin Chavez threw TD passes of 36 and 19 yards, respectively to Auron Silva and Cimarron Zamora. Chavez also ran the ball in from 2 yards out to help eliminate Catron County's Mountaineers.

Garyn Anaya, the other half of the 'Stangs' field-general tandem, hit Patrick Romero with an 8-yard scoring strike. In addition, Anaya carried the ball into the end zone on a 2-yard run of his own.

Mountainair's two-quarterback system produced. Chavez and Anaya swapped the leadership role depending on what was going through the calculating mind of Mustangs coach Robert Zamora.

"I think the turning point, when we knew we had it, was in the second half when we scored on our first drive (with 5:57 left in the third quarter to give Mountainair a 38-14 lead)," said Anaya, a 5-foot-10, 145-pound senior. "We had zero to no mistakes this time or close to it. And we're getting better every week."

That touchdown came on Chavez's keeper. It was capped by an Anaya shovel pass to Silva, who also had a 4-yard touchdown run, for a successful conversion.

Anaya, his team's primary passer during its victory over Springer on Oct. 24 to clinch the District 1-8M title, completed three post-TD passes Friday. He was 3-for-4 for 33 aerial yards and one interception.

Meanwhile, Chavez had a 5-of-9, no-interception, 94-yard passing performance versus Reserve.

"When one of the quarterbacks gets winded or something, the other one goes in," said Chavez, a 5-10, 155-pound junior. "When we're in the game together, I'm usually the quarterback, and Garyn goes to wide receiver. But the difference in this game was we rushed the quarterback, blitzed, went after (Mountaineer Nolen Snyder)."

Reserve (7-3) had a size advantage, and Mountainair (7-3) was on its heels in the early going. The Mountaineers, in the first drive of the game, garnered a 6-0 lead on a Joaquin Gutierrez 32-yard run.

"They were big, but size doesn't matter," Anaya said.

Indeed, Victor Torres, a 5-7, 159-pound cornerback, exemplified the Mustangs' mettle when he took on the 6-foot, 190-pound Snyder for a head-on, open-field tackle.

"I just was like, 'I've got to get this guy,'" Torres said. "I get excited when it's one on one."

The Mustangs used their gold-medal relay track talents in an array of fake handoffs, option plays and runs to the outside to get around their beefier opponents, and Reserve had a bad case of fumble-itis, losing the handle seven times. Though the jittery Mountaineers recovered the ball each time, they tended to give up ground as they frantically sought to retrieve the ball.

Fifth-seeded Mountainair outgained No. 4 Reserve 202 to 24 yards on the ground, and the Mustangs earned a 329- to 202-yard advantage in total yards. Senior Josh Gonzales, among six toting the ball for the Mustangs, led both teams with 109 yards on 15 carries.

The Mountaineers, with luck on their side, made it interesting in the second quarter. Mountainair's Izic Ortiz blocked Reserve's punt, but Snyder scooped up the ball and zipped a 27-yard pass for a first down.

The Mountaineers eventually scored on that same drive to close the gap to 16-14 with 7:46 left in the initial half. The Mustangs, however, retaliated for a 30-14 halftime lead with a Chavez-to-Zamora pass followed by an Anaya lob to Romero, who caught the ball in the end zone as he fell backward.

Mountainair, in a state semifinal matchup, hosts top-seeded Melrose (11-0) Friday.

"What it is with this team, is they're a lot of new players," coach Zamora said of his 'Stangs. "This is a whole new group. It's complicated, what we do. It took a while to get it down. Now they're playing together, and they've become a family."