Week 9 In Review: Top Performers

Week 9 of the New Mexico High School football season was filled with plenty of exceptional performances. Here are some of the top performers (in alphabetical order): <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="137930" first="Isaiah" last="Abeyta"], Centennial</strong>: Two TD receptions and the game-winning TD pass in Centennial’s wild 42-41 victory over Las Cruces. <strong>Ashton Aranda, Lovington</strong>: The Wildcats’ QB completed 19-of-31 passes for 262 yards and 4 TD in Lovington’s 48-16 win at Silver City. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="137862" first="Aidan" last="Armenta"], La Cueva</strong>: The Bears’ junior QB threw for 3 TD in their lopsided win over Santa Fe. La Cueva scored touchdowns on their first six possessions en route to staking a claim for a top 4 seed in the 6A playoffs. <strong>Rich Arreola, Roswell</strong>: The Coyotes’ QB threw a TD pass and then ran in the two-point conversion in the final minute as Roswell rallied past Artesia, 30-29, at the Wool Bowl. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="208821" first="Diego" last="Baeza"], Hobbs</strong>: Rushed for 88 yards on 19 carries and scored 3 TD in Hobbs’ 56-28 win over Organ Mountain at the Field of Dreams. <strong>Brandon Cabaniss, La Cueva</strong>: Rushed for two TD in la Cueva’s big win over Santa Fe. <strong>Ondalis Cardenas, Lovington</strong>: The Wildcats are known for their potent passing attack, but the freshman Cardenas fueled a strong ground game at Silver City by rushing for a season-high 119 yards. His previous season high had been 46 yards. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="137861" first="Aden" last="Chavez"], Cibola</strong>: Chavez was outstanding in Cibola’s big win over West Mesa, completing 15-of-24 passes for 230 Yards and 4 TD. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="137885" first="Paul" last="Cieremans"], Los Lunas</strong>: Arguably the state’s top dual threat QB rushed for 97 yards on 9 carries in the Tigers’ 54-7 rout of Valley at Milne Stadium. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="198070" first="Julian" last="Cobos"], Santa Teresa</strong>: The Desert Warriors stuck to the ground in beating Deming, 30-27. Cobos rushed for 206 yards and 2 TD on 16 carries to propel the rushing attack. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="138056" first="Cole" last="Conway"], Albuq. Academy</strong>: Rushed for 109 yards and 2 TD on 15 carries in the Chargers’ 48-0 win over Grants. <strong>Dontrelle Denetso, Navajo Prep</strong>: Scored 4 TD  in a 68-14 victory over Zuni. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="135303" first="Dominic" last="Esparza"], St. Pius X</strong>: Our Player of the Week scored 5 touchdowns, including a 61-yard punt return, in the Sartans’ 39-6 victory over Valencia <strong>Devin Flores, St. Michael’s</strong>: The Horsemen struggled to generate offense in Saturday’s 13-12 win over West Las Vegas, but Flores came to the rescue with a long punt return for a TD and a 36-yard TD reception to account for their points. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="198288" first="Beto" last="Garcia"], Organ Mountain</strong>: The Knights QB accounted for 205 yards and two touchdowns in Organ Mountain’s loss to Hobbs. <strong>Damian Gallegos, West Las Vegas</strong>: The Dons’ top RB was a workhorse against St. Michael’s, carrying 32 times for 100 yards. His output put hm over the 1,000-yard plateau for the season. He has about 1,100 rushing yards with two regular season games left plus the Class 3A playoffs. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="137928" first="Kellan" last="Gehres"], Albuq. Academy</strong>: One of the top receivers in Class 4A caught 5 passes for 138 yards and 1 TD in a huge win over Grants. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="134985" first="Tayten" last="Hilliard"], Lovington</strong>: Hilliard had another big game for the Wildcats by catching 5 passes for 121 yards and 2 TD. He added 7 tackles and 2 passes defended on defense. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26267" first="Ian" last="Lopez"], Centennial</strong>: The Hawk’s QB put the exclamation point on Centennial incredible 27-point comeback by catching the winning TD in the closing seconds on a flea flicker. He also threw a pair of TD passes and scored on a 1-run run during the rally, finishing the game with 5 TD accounted for. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="134963" first="Nathan" last="Lopez"], Cibola</strong>: The TV crew for Friday night’s Cibola-West Mesa matchup at Community Stadium had a good description for Lopez: “The People’s Champion.” Lopez did it all on both sides of the ball, catching 2 TD passes on offense and intercepting 2 passes on defense. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="208737" first="Julian" last="Munoz"], Capital</strong>: The Jaguars QB ran for two touchdowns, including a 69-yarder on a broken play, to lead Capital to a 22-6 road district win at Miyamura. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="138039" first="Robert" last="Nora"], Clovis</strong>: Nora rushed for 103 yards on just three carries and caught 3 passes in Clovis’ 28-0 blanking of Manzano. The Wildcats have now won three straight games and are a major factor in the district race. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="134990" first="Elijah" last="Ogas"], Las Cruces</strong>: The Bulldawgs RB raced 69 yards for the game’s first TD in the opening minute and finished with over 100 yards rushing in Las Cruces’ 1-point loss to Centennial. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="208826" first="Elliot" last="Paskett-Bell"], Volcano Vista</strong>: After taking over for starter [player_tooltip player_id="26247" first="Josh" last="Gerardo"], who was injured while throwing a TD pass on the game’s first play against Cleveland, Paskett-Bell threw for 440 yards. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="208794" first="Jacob" last="Ramsted"], Piedra Vista</strong>: The Panthers’ RB scored 6 touchdowns in a 47-0 victory over Los Alamos. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="137884" first="A.J." last="Rivera"], Albuq. Academy</strong>: The Chargers QB was nearly flawless in their 48-0 victory over Grants, completing 16-of-21 passes for 237 yards and 2 TD. <strong>Kash Roberts, Clovis</strong>: Caught 5 passes for 83 yards and 1 TD in the Wildcats’ win over Manzano. <strong>Joziah Rodriguez, Highland</strong>: Along with the defense forcing six turnovers, Rodriguez rushed for four TD in the Hornets’ 51-6 victory over Del Norte. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="198231" first="Aidan" last="St. John"], Eldorado</strong>: St. John has been Eldorado’s top rusher all season and Saturday he had 138 yards rushing and 2 TD on 23 carries in a 29-15 victory over Albuquerque in a hastily arranged game. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="208748" first="Ryan" last="Sharpe"], Bloomfield</strong>: After battling injuries, Sharpe made his first start at QB for the Bobcats since injuring his knee against Valencia last month and scored two touchdowns in the second half to lead Bloomfield to an emotional 20-17 victory over local rival Aztec. <strong>Micah Tippett, Eunice</strong>: Rushed for 192 yards on 14 carries as Eunice outlasted Hagerman, 34-28, in OT. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="139523" first="Nic" last="Trujillo"], Cleveland</strong>: Trujillo played a significant role in the Storm’s comeback from an early 20-point deficit to Volcano Vista by catching two TD passes covering 44 and 66 yards from QB [player_tooltip player_id="139521" first="Evan" last="Wysong"]. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="138053" first="Cayden" last="Walton"], Raton</strong>: Rushed for 113 yards on just 2 carries, including a 70-yarder, as Raton remained unbeaten by cruising past Santa Fe Indian School, 50-14. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26227" first="Zach" last="Vigil"], Rio Rancho</strong>: The Rams offense overpowered another opponent as Vigil rushed for 4 TD and finished with 147 yards rushing on 13 carries in a 50-0 victory over Atrisco Heritage. Saturday, Vigil took an unofficial visit to New Mexico for the home game against Colorado State. https://twitter.com/zacharyvigil21/status/1450123475415289857 https://twitter.com/KellanGehres23/status/1449814768055848960 https://twitter.com/Abe58Lopez/status/1449538771674812422 https://twitter.com/BrandonOlivasQB/status/1450115758596493315 https://twitter.com/InixDom/status/1449436378954043392