Week 5 Whiparound: Top Performances, Games and Finishes

Week 5 of the New Mexico spring football season is in the books. Here is our whip-around analysis of the week’s top team performances, top games and top finishes. <strong>Team of the Week</strong>: Cleveland. Officially, the NMAA did not award blue trophies this spring to the best football teams in each classification. However, the Storm rendered the question of which school was best in 6A moot with a thunderous 56-7 victory over Las Cruces Saturday afternoon at UNM Stadium. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26158" first="Luke" last="Wysong"]</strong>, headed to New Mexico later this summer, caught five TD passes. Cleveland finished 4-0, posting victories over Clovis, Centennial, Rio Rancho and Las Cruces. They outscored those four opponents, 179-42. And 21 of those points were scored by Centennial. The other three opponents combined for 21 points. Last two games against Rio Rancho and Las Cruces? 98-7. Honorable Mention: Socorro, Farmington, Pojoaque Valley, Eunice. <strong>Best Team Defensive Performance</strong>: Bernalillo. Led by Fort Lewis College-bound LB [player_tooltip player_id="26210" first="Ayden" last="Madrid"], the Bernalillo defense was dominant all season long, allowing just 13 points in four games. They wrapped up the spring with a hard-fought 7-6 win over Grants, holding Pirates QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26232" first="Brandon" last="Furbee"]</strong> to 8-of-18 passing for 81 yards. Grants RB Terrell Hocker rushed for 157 yards, but those yards didn’t cost the Spartans in the end. Honorable Mention: Portales, Los Lunas, Cleveland. <strong>Best Finish</strong>: Even with their best player, 2023 quarterback <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="118805" first="Aden" last="Chavez"]</strong>, standing on the sidelines with his arm in a sling (later reported he had suffered a broken collarbone), Cibola stunned Eldorado with a pair of touchdowns in the final minutes for a 29-22 victory at Community Stadium. Backup QB <strong>Steve Barela</strong> threw a 20-yard TD pass to Nathan Lopez and then connected with <strong>Elijah Spaulding</strong> for the 2-point conversion to tie the score at 22-22. Spaulding then intercepted an Eldorado pass with about 20 seconds left and returned it to about the Eldorado 10-yard line. Barela tossed a 5-yard TD pass to Spaulding with five seconds left for the game-winning points. <strong>Best Game</strong>: Piedra Vista 30, Capital 28. While Cibola-Eldorado had the most exciting finish, the best game from start-to-finish was the Piedra Vista-Capital matchup Saturday afternoon in Santa Fe. The two teams went back-and-forth, trading punches for nearly 48 minutes before the Panthers, trailing 28-27 at the time, pulled out the win by virtue of a likely do-or-die game-winning field goal with 2:26 left. PV then intercepted a Capital pass with 34 seconds left to preserve the win. <strong>Best Quarterback</strong>: Volcano Vista QB <strong>Johnny Herrera</strong> capped off his prep career with a memorable performance, throwing for 472 yards and five touchdowns in the Hawks’ 56-21 trouncing of La Cueva. He completed 20-of-28 passes, and also rushed for 112 yards. Herrera, who threw for 1,080 yards in three games, has college offers on the table and will likely play at the next level. <strong>Best Rivalry Win</strong>: Pojoaque Valley. The Elks’ spring season could have gone south very easily after they opened the campaign with lopsided losses to Deming (50-0) and Capital (59-6). But Pojoaque Valley kept their composure – a credit to the coaching staff and players – and concluded the spring with victories over Valencia (36-22) on March 26 and regional rival Espanola Valley (50-0) this past Easter weekend. <strong>Eunice Excellence</strong>: Eunice squared off Saturday afternoon with Texico at UNM Stadium in a ‘bowl game’ clash between the spring’s two best Class 2A schools. As you might expect, the game was a close, hard-fought affair with the Cardinal prevailing, 26-19. Eunice QB <strong>Hayden Dean</strong> threw for 130 yards and rushed for 73 yards in his final prep game. Another senior, <strong>TJ Martinez</strong>, rushed for 161 yards on 17 carries. <strong>Thirty-Three Years Is A Long Time</strong>: Prior to last Friday night, West Mesa had last beaten Sandia in 1988. But 33 years of frustration came to an end as the Mustangs beat the Matadors, 37-26, scoring on all four of its first half possessions. 2022 QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26242" first="Daniel" last="Ayala"]</strong> threw four TD passes for West Mesa, setting the stage for what should be a solid senior season for himself and the Mustangs. Pencil in West Mesa as a dark horse contender in the fall. <strong>Silver and Gold</strong>: While Ayala has one year left in his prep career, Silver QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26201" first="Walker" last="Wenzel"]</strong> wrapped up his time at Silver High School in style, completing 15-of-23 passes for 219 yards and rushing for 69 yards to lead the Fighting Colts to a 40-7 victory over Kirtland Central at Los Lunas High School. In 3 games Walker threw for 501 yards and rushed for 329 yards, earning his status as one of the top dual threat quarterbacks in the state. Next stop for Walker? Western New Mexico University. Walker signed with the Mustangs in February and should join the program this summer. <strong>Special Socorro</strong>: The Socorro Warriors staked their claim to being the top team in Class 3A with an emphatic 48-14 victory over Dexter at UNM Stadium. Led by <strong>Nathaniel Fresquez</strong>, Socorro finished the spring with a 5-0 record. How did Fresquez celebrate Saturday’s win? By committing to New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI) a few hours after the game. https://twitter.com/_NMAA/status/1379161976102862855 https://twitter.com/docampo98/status/1378432210672381952 https://twitter.com/CHSStormFB/status/1378733464669814789 https://twitter.com/BlakeMuscato2/status/1378515503354904577 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;