Raptors de Naucalpan (English: ''Naucalpan Raptors'') are an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

team based in

Naucalpan Naucalpan, officially Naucalpan de Juárez, is one of Municipalities of the State of Mexico, 125 Municipalities of Mexico State, and is located just northwest of Mexico City. The municipal seat is the city of Naucalpan de Juárez, which extends ...

, Mexico. The Raptors compete in the

Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional The Professional American Football League ( or LFA), is a semi-professional American football league in Mexico, founded in 2016. Starting with four teams, the LFA has since expanded to eleven members as of 2022. The regular season runs in the sp ...

, the top American football league in Mexico. The team plays its home games at the Estadio José Ortega Martínez. Despite never winning an LFA title, the Raptors have the most playoff appearances with six.

History

The team was founded on 4 November 2015 and is one of the four charter members of the

Rafael Duk era (2016–2017)

In their first season, the Raptors finished second in the league with a 4–2 regular season record, qualifying for the Tazón México I. The team, though, lost the league's championship 13–29 to the

Mayas Maya () are an ethnolinguistic group of Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today's Maya are generally descended from people who lived within that historical region. Today ...

. The Raptors led the North Division on the 2017 season, qualifying for playoffs with a 5–2 regular season record, led by League MVP, QB

Bruno Márquez Bruno Daniel Márquez Albarrán (born 21 September 1989), is a Mexican former professional gridiron football quarterback in the LFA, having played for 8 seasons, since the league's inaugural season. He played college football with Pumas CU befo ...

. In the divisional game, the team lost to the newcomers

Dinos In the typology of ancient Greek pottery, the (plural '','' known in ancient times as a ) is a mixing bowl or cauldron. means , but in modern typology is used for the same shape as a , that is, a bowl with a spherical body, often accompanied ...

, despite their opponent having a losing record.

Guillermo Gutiérrez era (2018–present)

In 2018, Guillermo Gutiérrez replaced Rafael Duk as head coach. Also, the team switched from the

Estadio Jesús Martínez "Palillo" The Estadio Jesús Martínez "Palillo" is a multi-use stadium located in the Magdalena Mixhuca Sports City in Mexico City. It is currently the home of the Mexicas of the Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional (LFA), Chilangos F.C. of the Serie ...

to the

Estadio José Ortega Martínez The Estadio José Ortega Martínez also known as Valley Bowl Stadium, is a stadium of American football, football with capacity for 3,700 people located in Naucalpan de Juárez, Naucalpan, State of Mexico, campus Lomas Verdes Universidad del Va ...

, in

State of Mexico The State of Mexico, officially just Mexico, is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Colloquially known as Edomex (from , the abbreviation of , and ), to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is the mo ...

. The Raptors qualified to the playoffs as second in the North Division with a 3–4 record. In a rematch of the 2017 game, Raptors defeated 21–6

in the divisional game, earning a spot in the Tazón México III. The team lost its second Tazón Mexico game, 0–17 to the

Mexicas The Mexica (Nahuatl: ; singular ) are a Nahuatl-speaking people of the Valley of Mexico who were the rulers of the Triple Alliance, more commonly referred to as the Aztec Empire. The Mexica established Tenochtitlan, a settlement on an island ...

. In

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, the team dominated the North Division, finishing with a 6–2 (5–1 in the division) regular season record. After defeating the Fundidores in over time at the divisional game, Raptors qualified for their third

Tazón México The Tazón México (English: Mexico Bowl) is the annual championship game of the Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional, the highest level of professional American football in Mexico. As with the Super Bowl, Roman numerals are used to identify each ...

, and the second in a row. Raptors lost the championship against the

Condors Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. The name derives from the Quechua ''kuntur''. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere. One species, the Andean condor (''Vult ...

16–20. This was the third Tazón Mexico loss for the team and the second in a row. The 2020 season was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the Raptors had a 4–1 record at the moment of the suspension of the season. The

2021 season 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

was also cancelled. In

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

the Raptors finished the regular season as the fourth ranked team with a 4–2 record, qualifying to the playoffs, where they were eliminated by the Fundidores on the semifinal 27–30 with a touchdown pass from

Shelton Eppler Shelton Eppler is an American football quarterback for the Vienna Vikings of the European League of Football. He has also played in the Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional (LFA) Mexico and National Ligaen in Denmark. Eppler was a three-year ...

to Tavarious Battiste on the last play of the game.

Rivals

Dinos de Saltillo

The

Dinos de Saltillo Dinos de Saltillo (English: ''Saltillo Dinos'') are an American football team based in Saltillo, Mexico. The Dinos compete in the Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional, the top American football league in Mexico. The team plays its home games at t ...

and the Raptors play each season the so-called Jurassic Duel (Spanish: Duelo Jurásico). Due to these teams being two of the strongest in the league in recent years, this rivalry is considered amongst LFA's most important rivalries.

Stadiums

In 2016, for the inaugural season of the LFA, all of the four founding teams (

Eagles Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

and Raptors) played all their matches at the

, in the

Magdalena Mixhuca Sports City The Magdalena Mixhuca Sports City is an Olympic Park which was used during the 1968 Summer Olympics. Found in the area of Mexico City known as the Magdalena Mixhuca, the park continues to serve as a venue for cultural, social, worship and sport e ...

. For the 2018 season, Raptors moved from "Palillo" Martínez stadium to the

, the stadium has a capacity of 3,700 spectators and it is located inside the

Universidad del Valle de México The Universidad del Valle de México (UVM) is a private university founded in 1960 and one of the largest university systems in Mexico. The school enrolls more than 120,000 students, and has approximately 11,900 faculty members and 6,900 staff ...

Lomas Verdes campus and it is regularly used by the university's

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

team, the Linces. In 2019, the team moved from the Estadio José Ortega Martínez to the field of the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public university, public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countri ...

Acatlán campus, also located in Naucalpan and used by FES Acatlán's

team: Pumas Acatlán. The cause of the movement has not been disclosed nor by the team or the league. Raptors returned to the Estadio José Ortega Martínez for the 2020 season. Despite the fact that the team is branded as being from

, Raptors played their home matches for the two first seasons in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

and they only moved to Naucalpan for the 2018 season.

Roster

Staff

Season-by-season

Awards

* North Division ** Champions (2): (2018, 2019)

References

{{Naucalpan Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional teams Sport in Naucalpan American football teams established in 2015 Sports clubs and teams in the State of Mexico 2015 establishments in Mexico