Joel A. says: Moreno comes through in the clutch for Crane

One swing of the kicker’s leg.

Sometimes, that’s all it takes to extend a season. Or to end it.

Every weekend, a handful of football games end the same way. Locked in a tight battle from start to finish, a team gets the ball with a last chance to score, drives into field-goal range and leaves it up to the kicker.

Locked in a 28-28 tie on the first possession of overtime in a Class 2A Division II regional playoff against Cisco — a state finalist a year ago — Crane needed Fabian Moreno to win the game with a field goal.

No pressure.

“At first, I was nervous,” Moreno said. “But then we called a timeout.”

Turns out full-time kickers — like the specialists in the college and professional ranks — have it easy. Those guys only have one job to do.

And that means they have time to prepare for the big kicks.

Think about it. Throughout the end of any last-second drive on a nationally-broadcast football game, the cameras keep cutting back to the kicker between plays. To a man, those kickers have the same routine.

Methodically slam the ball into the practice net, over and over; to make sure the leg is perfectly calibrated for the high-pressure kick to come.

Moreno doesn’t have that luxury.

When Crane linebacker Cody Black recovered a fumble to end Cisco’s first possession in overtime, Moreno couldn’t spend his time worrying.

Moreno doubles as the Golden Cranes’ starting tight end. Before he could think about a possible field goal, he had to think about blocking.

“All I was thinking about was trying to score,” Moreno said. “I didn’t even think about the field goal until we got to fourth down.”

By that point in the game, Moreno hurt.

Trying to throw a block on a Cisco defender on Crane’s second play of the game, Moreno took a shot to his left thigh. He got up limping. Shortly after taking the hit, Moreno’s leg was swollen all the way down to his knee.

But he kept playing.

Moreno suffered the injury to his non-kicking leg, although his plant foot might have been a little shaky on a few extra points. One of Moreno’s kicks barely cleared the crossbar.

And he hadn’t exactly racked up a series of field goals coming into the game. Through the first 12 games of the season, Moreno, a lifelong soccer player who took over Crane’s kicking job as a senior this season, had made two field goals in six attempts.

Kicking a field goal in practice has always been easy. Kicking a game-winner in front of thousands of people isn’t the same thing.

Facing fourth-and-goal at the Cisco 1-yard line in overtime, though, Crane head coach Naldo Esparza never hesitated. He put his faith in Moreno’s right foot.

And the chemistry between Moreno and holder Jordan Cavazos.

“Fabian and Jordan work very hard on that part of the game,” Esparza said. “Both of them stay every day after practice to work on it.”

Turns out Cavazos, the Golden Cranes’ starting quarterback, was all the calming medicine Moreno needed.

Right after Esparza called timeout to make sure Crane had the right personnel on the field, Cisco head coach Brent West opted to call another timeout to ice Moreno, a recently popular strategy that tries to stretch the kicker’s nerves to the breaking point.

Cavazos had his kicker under control.

“I’ve never been in one of those situations where they tried to ice the kicker,” Cavazos said. “I told him to stay out there with me, to picture a big soccer net behind the goal posts.”

From 19 yards away — shorter than an extra point — Moreno drilled the field goal to send Crane to the quarterfinals.

Then he got buried under a dogpile built by his wildly celebrating teammates.

One swing of the leg can end a game.

And turn a kicker into a hero.