Baker’s Dozen: Week 3 Preview of Top 13 games

Week 3 of the once-in-a-lifetime (hopefully) abbreviated spring season gets underway Thursday night with four games, three involving Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) for the first time. The action continues Friday night and Saturday afternoon and evening. All in all, it’s an action- packed weekend for high school football fans around the state. Here are the Top 13 games of Week 3: <strong>Game of the Week</strong>: <strong>Cleveland vs. Centennial (at Socorro)(Sat. 1 p.m.)</strong> This week’s ‘Clash of the Titans’ takes place on a neutral field in Socorro. Both teams are coming off impressive victories last weekend in their spring season openers. Cleveland dismantled struggling Clovis on the Storm’s home field, while Centennial trounced Onate at the Field of Dreams. Both teams possess talented offenses. Centennial QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26168" first="Karsten" last="Rueckner"]</strong>’s debut at quarterback was a major success, while Cleveland QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26185" first="Jeff" last="Davison"]</strong> arguably had the best opener of any quarterback in the state. Both signal callers have an array of weapons around them. But both defenses are solid. Should be a great matchup. <strong>Lovington at Goddard (Fri., 7 p.m.)</strong>: Lovington’s prolific and balanced offensive attack is led by quarterback Jared Jeffrey, who has already thrown for 7 touchdowns and 369 yards through two games. Goddard showed last week they can score AND stop people in a huge win over Artesia. Lovington went to 6A Hobbs and won last weekend. Now they’ll try to do the same to 5A Goddard in the Wool Bowl. <strong>La Cueva at Los Lunas (Sat., 1 p.m.)</strong>: Schools in Albuquerque and Los Lunas finally return to the gridiron. La Cueva senior QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26220" first="Ryan" last="Cook"]</strong> finally gets his chance to lead the Bears offense. How La Cueva deals with Los Lunas DE <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26153" first="Tyler" last="Kiehne"]</strong>, who signed with UCLA in December, will go a long way towards determining the outcome. <strong>Roswell at Artesia (Fri., 7 p.m.)</strong>: A great Class 5A rivalry matchup involving two of the premier programs in southeast NM. Roswell outlasted Carlsbad last weekend, dominating the game on the ground. Artesia has lost its first two games but as long as they have WR <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26164" first="Braxton" last="McDonald"]</strong>, the Bulldogs remain a dangerous team. <strong>Sandia vs</strong>. <strong>Cibola (at Wilson Stadium, Thur. 7 p.m.)</strong>: Cibola quarterback <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="118805" first="Aden" last="Chavez"]</strong> is arguably the state’s top 2023 prospect. Cibola would have made some noise in Class 6A if the fall schedule had been played in full. Sandia lost DE [player_tooltip player_id="26154" first="Sam" last="Carrell"], who decided to enroll early at Washington State. <strong>Bloomfield at Farmington (Fri. 7 p.m.)</strong>: Are these the top two teams in the Four Corners region? Looks like it. Farmington has outscored its first two opponents (Aztec, Miyamura) by 106-18. Meanwhile, Bloomfield was edged by a very good Alamogordo team, 16-14, in the opener before knocking off Piedra Vista, 14-0, last weekend. These two teams have allowed just 32 points in four combined games. Best defense could win this time. <strong>Clovis at Rio Rancho (Sat., 4 p.m.)</strong>: Before the spring season started, this appeared to be the premier Week 3 game. But Clovis’ struggles on offense without [player_tooltip player_id="26155" first="Chance" last="Harris"] has taken some of the starch out of the matchup. The Wildcats have become one-dimensional with RB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26162" first="Jeston" last="Webskowski"]</strong> the only legitimate threat. Rio Rancho opened the spring with a booming 57-6 win over Santa Fe last Saturday. The Rams were hitting on all cylinders on both sides of the ball and looked unstoppable. <strong>Eldorado vs. Volcano Vista (at Wilson Stadium)(Sat., 5 p.m.)</strong>: Another intriguing matchup involving APS schools. Eldorado has the offensive backfield talent to make some noise, while Volcano Vista was the No. 1 seed in the 2019 Class 6A playoffs. <strong>Alamogordo at Silver (Sat., 1 p.m.)</strong>: Alamogordo is roaring into Week 3 on the heels of victories over Bloomfield and Ruidoso. RB [player_tooltip player_id="26190" first="Sean" last="Hays"] has 226 rushing yards after eight quarters and looks every bit the part of a guy capable of playing at the next level. Silver is finally opening their season, so we’ll finally get a look at WNMU signee [player_tooltip player_id="26201" first="Walker" last="Wenzel"], one of the top dual threat quarterbacks in the state. <strong>Albuquerque Academy at Bernalillo (Fri., 7 p.m.)</strong>: Time for Bernalillo senior linebacker [player_tooltip player_id="26210" first="Ayden" last="Madrid"], who signed with Fort Lewis College, to get after Academy’s young QB AJ Rivera. He led AA to a convincing win over Tucumcari last week and has thrown for 463 yards in the first two games. <strong>Hobbs at Carlsbad (Fri., 7 p.m.)</strong>: Carlsbad went toe-to-toe with Roswell for almost four full quarters last weekend before succumbing in the end. But the Cavemen are a good football team as they showed in the Eddy County War win. Hobbs has lost its first two games by a combined 7 points. The Eagles are looking for a breakthrough win. <strong>Gadsden at Santa Teresa (Fri., 7 p.m.)</strong>: Both teams finally open their season. And they’ll play each other next week too. Desert Warriors RB [player_tooltip player_id="26240" first="Adrian" last="Rodriguez"] is the biggest name in this one. He rushed for over 1,000 yards as a sophomore in 2019. <strong>West Mesa vs. Albuquerque (at Community)(Sat, 5 p.m.)</strong>: Watching Albuquerque DE and New Mexico commit Carlos Lovato pursue West Mesa 2022 QB [player_tooltip player_id="26242" first="Daniel" last="Ayala"] will be worth the price of admission. <strong>Other Games To Watch</strong>: Atrisco Heritage vs. Manzano (at Community Stadium) Highland vs. Valley (at Milne) Las Cruces vs. Onate (at Field of Dreams) Grants at Gallup Hagerman at Jal Santa Fe at Los Alamos St. Pius X at Moriarty Hatch Valley at Socorro Hot Springs at Tularosa Santa Rosa at Texico Pojoaque Valley at Capital Tucumcari at Dexter Raton at Estancia Miyamura at Kirtland Central Hope Christian at NMMI Portales at Ruidoso Belen at Valencia Deming at Mayfield Aztec at Piedra Vista https://twitter.com/AlamoFootball/status/1372265210178727937 https://twitter.com/rios552/status/1371833971932291073 https://twitter.com/SFPS_ATHLETICS/status/1372265819623673860