Week 3 Whiparound: Top Performances, Best Games and Fun Stuff

Week 3 of the New Mexico High School football season is complete. Here are some of the best performances, best games, fascinating numbers and other fun stuff from the third weekend of the 2021 season. Team of the Week: La Cueva. The Bears bounced back from Week 2’s embarrassing mercy rule loss to Rio Rancho with a solid 28-10 victory over Las Cruces at the Field of Dreams. La Cueva scored all 28 of their points in the second half after trailing 7-0 at halftime on a 1-yard TD run by [player_tooltip player_id="134990" first="Elijah" last="Ogas"] late in the second quarter. The Bears defense allowed the Bulldawgs to penetrate the red zone just once in the second half. Junior QB [player_tooltip player_id="137862" first="Aidan" last="Armenta"] ran for a 34-yard TD for La Cueva’s first points of the game. After that, Gabriel Buie scored on three TD runs of 9, 46 and 43 yards as La Cueva pulled away. Honorable Mention: Capital; Valley; Mayfield; West Las Vegas. Player of the Week: [player_tooltip player_id="26251" first="Zakk" last="Thomas"], Kirtland Central. Thomas rushed for a school record EIGHT touchdowns in Kirtland Central’s wild 63-34 road victory at Taos, the Broncos’ first win of the season after an 0-2 start. Thomas amassed 500+ yards in all-purpose yards rushing for over 300 yards and amassing 100+ yards on special teams. He also plays linebacker on the Kirtland Central defense, so he rarely comes off the field. Honorable Mention: Julian Munoz (Capital); [player_tooltip player_id="137885" first="Paul" last="Cieremans"] (Los Lunas). Best Team Offensive Performance: Cleveland. The Storm ambushed Manzano, 55-0, Friday in a mercy-rule game. How efficient was the Storm’s offense? They were 5-of-5 scoring in the red zone and never faced a third down situation. Quarterbacks [player_tooltip player_id="139521" first="Evan" last="Wysong"] and Elijah Brody went a combined 6-of-7 passing for 98 yards. Honorable Mention: Centennial; Kirtland Central. Best Team Defensive Performance: Rio Rancho. The Rams posted their second shutout to start the season, 41-0 over Eldorado Friday night. However, the game was closer than the final score indicates. Rio Rancho led by only seven points (7-0) at halftime on QB Dominick Priddy’s 32-yard run. But the Rams dominated the second half on both sides of the ball. Rio Rancho had three interceptions and RB [player_tooltip player_id="26227" first="Zach" last="Vigil"] collected three rushing TDs. Honorable Mention: Mayfield (pair of Pick-6 interceptions); Cleveland (allowed just 67 yards of total offense to Manzano). Best Game: Capital 35, Moriarty 34 (OT). Good things come to those who wait. Saturday’s Capital-Moriarty game in Santa Fe almost didn’t happen because of a referee shortage in northern New Mexico and covid concerns within the Moriarty program. But the teams finally played Saturday morning and produced one of the best games of the year. In OT, Moriarty scored a TD during its set of downs and kicked the PAT for a 34-27 lead. Capital QB Julian Munoz passed for a TD on the Jaguars’ possession. However, instead of kicking the tying PAT and going to a second OT, Capital coach Joaquin Garcia elected to go for 2 in a do-or-die decision. Munoz took the shotgun snap and sprinted to his right, winning the race to the pylon to give Capital the thrilling win, taking a licking from the Moriarty defender in the process. Honorable Mention: Valley 31, St. Pius X 28 (4 lead changes); West Las Vegas 46, Portales 38. Best Finish: Lovington 22, Alamogordo 21. The Wildcats trailed, 21-13, on the road in the final 30 seconds when [player_tooltip player_id="26233" first="Isaac" last="Hinson"], one of the state’s top playmakers, caught a TD pass to bring Lovington within a point. Rather than settling on tying the score with the PAT and heading for OT, the Wildcats opted to go for the two-point conversion. They converted to stun Alamogordo. Best Rivalry Win: Santa Fe. The Demons hadn’t beaten city rival St. Michael’s in 13 years when the two teams took the field Friday night at Ivan Head Stadium. The Horsemen took the opening kickoff and drove about 70 yards for the game’s first touchdown. However, St. Michael’s lost dual threat QB [player_tooltip player_id="134997" first="Lucas" last="Coriz"] to a severe leg injury late in the drive. Their offense sputtered the rest of the game, mustering just 77 yards of total offense in the final three quarters. Meanwhile, [player_tooltip player_id="26265" first="Martell" last="Mora"], one of 19 seniors on the Demons, carried the Demons with 94 yards rushing and a punt return for a TD. Santa Fe is 3-0 for the first time since 1985. Honorable Mention: Raton. Inevitability?: Based on the first three weeks, we could be headed for another Rio Rancho-Cleveland showdown in the Class 6A state championship game Thanksgiving weekend after the two teams met in a classic title game in 2019. Together, the two crosstown rivals have outscored their opponents by a combined 230-53. Thirty-two (32) of those points were scored by El Paso (TX) Franklin against the Storm. Rio Rancho and Cleveland square off Oct. 29 at Rio Rancho HS in what is shaping up to be the Game of the Year in New Mexico. What are the chances both teams enter that game with perfect 9-0 records? At this point, pretty good. Who’s No. 3 in the MaxPreps Class 6A rankings? Right now, it’s Carlsbad, whose Week 3 game at Volcano Vista was cancelled due to covid protocols within the Hawks program. Las Cruces vs. Albuquerque: Schools from Las Cruces and Albuquerque (APS only) have squared off eight times through the first three weeks. In Week 3, Centennial beat Sandia and La Cueva downed Las Cruces. After three weeks of action, Las Cruces leads 5-3. If you include Cleveland and Rio Rancho, Las Cruces leads 5-4 as Cleveland beat Centennial, 49-21, in Week 1. Road Warriors: Centennial made the first of two trips to Albuquerque and doubled up Sandia, 42-21. The Hawks cored the first three touchdowns of the game and led 21-7 at halftime. . .Artesia rallied from a halftime deficit to beat Belen, 21-7. [player_tooltip player_id="137932" first="Payton" last="Deans"] ran for a TD to get the Bulldogs going offensively, then ran for a 6-yard score. Nathan Taylor threw to [player_tooltip player_id="138074" first="Devyn" last="Fierro"] for a 22-yard TD pass to complete the scoring. . .Los Lunas faced West Mesa at Community Stadium and came away with a 42-13 victory. Dual threat QB [player_tooltip player_id="137885" first="Paul" last="Cieremans"] rushed for 3 TDs and threw for at least one more for the Tigers. Bernalillo Blankings: Bernalillo posted its third consecutive shutout to begin the season with Friday night’s 35-0 home win over Los Alamos. The Spartans have outscored its opponents, 139-0. Dating back to the spring, Bernalillo has allowed just 13 points in its last 7 games, an average of less than 2.0 points per game. Los Alamos suffered its first loss of the season. Senior [player_tooltip player_id="135137" first="Kavin" last="Chavez"] has a team-leading 26 tackles in 3 games. Frolicking In The Four Corners: Three Four Corner steam posted shutouts wins in Week 3. Farmington went to Albuquerque and routed Highland, 53-0, scoring on each of its first five possessions. The Scorpions came into the weekend ranked No. 3 in Class 5A by MaxPreps. . .Bloomfield trounced Grants, 52-0 as WR Marc Armenta caught four passes for 102 yards and two TDs. . .Piedra Vista had a tougher time before beating Atrisco Heritage, 14-0, in Farmington. AHS was playing its first game of the season after the contests against Del Norte and Rio Grande were cancelled. Life Beyond Halftime: Class 4A Albuquerque Academy played past halftime for the first time this season, holding on for a 21-20 victory over Hope Christian Saturday. The Chargers scored all of their points in the first half, grabbing a 21-14 halftime lead on Kellen Gehre’s 16-yard TD reception from QB [player_tooltip player_id="137884" first="A.J." last="Rivera"] with 12 seconds left in the first half. Hope Christian scored the second half’s lone TD but missed the PAT. In the first quarter, [player_tooltip player_id="26270" first="James" last="Jenkins"] raced 96 yards for TD after Hope Christian had stopped AA on 4th down inside the 5-yard line. Week 4 Lookahead (Sept. 9-11): Las Cruces at Cleveland La Cueva at Volcano Vista Clovis at Rio Rancho Cibola at Eldorado (Wilson) Mayfield at Centennial Los Lunas at Roswell Santa Fe at Capital Farmington at Aztec Atrisco Heritage at Valley Valencia at Portales Albuquerque Academy at Bloomfield Kirtland Central at Piedra Vista St. Michael’s at Los Alamos Hope Christian at Socorro Lovington at Hobbs Santa Teresa at Alamogordo https://twitter.com/_NMAA/status/1434567074240602114 https://twitter.com/CoachGonzo96/status/1434047216071630848 https://twitter.com/PrepRedzoneNM/status/1434264884577964034 https://twitter.com/Angrybirdfb/status/1434288277972926466 https://twitter.com/RatonFootball/status/1434626143718502402 https://twitter.com/KellanGehres23/status/1434654952438128644 https://twitter.com/HHS_HornetsFB/status/1434229058003423240 https://twitter.com/sfnmsports/status/1434000008743956483