November Madness: Class 4A/3A Quarterfinal Round Preview

In the first round of the Class 4A and 3A playoffs last weekend, home teams won all but one of the first-round games. The lone exception was Dexter winning at Cuba. Five of the eight quarterfinal game sin Classes 4A and 3A will be played on Saturday. Here is how the quarterfinals in those classes stack up: <strong>CLASS 4A</strong> <strong>Silver (8) at Lovington (1)</strong>(Sat., 1 p.m.): Led by fantastic junior RB <strong>Aiden Granado</strong>, who has rushed for over 1,400 yards this season, Silver heads to southeast New Mexico for a rematch with Lovington. The Wildcats beat the Colts, 48-16, on Oct. 15 and will again feature one of the top passing attacks in the entire state. QB <strong>Ashton Aranda</strong> (1,710 passing yards) and three senior receivers stand out: <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26256" first="Adam" last="Aguilera"], Isaac Hinton and [player_tooltip player_id="134985" first="Tayten" last="Hilliard"]</strong>. When Lovington wants to run the football, they give it freshman <strong>Ondalis Cardenas</strong> (541 rushing yards). <strong>Albuq. Academy (5) at Moriarty (4)</strong>(Fri., 7 p.m.): Talk about a contrast in styles. Albuquerque Academy wants to throw the football, and when you have a quarterback like <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="137884" first="A.J." last="Rivera"]</strong> (2,345 passing yards) and a WR like <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="137928" first="Kellan" last="Gehres"]</strong> (61 receptions for 1,062 yards), it’s usually a successful strategy. And now that RB [player_tooltip player_id="138056" first="Cole" last="Conway"] has been lost with a broken collarbone, they’ll probably throw the ball even more along with utilizing a running back by committee approach. Moriarty will do three things on offense: run the football, run the football and run the football. Academy head coach Shaun Gehres had the perfect description for Moriarty’s offensive scheme: “run machine.” <strong>Ruidoso (6) at St. Pius X (3)</strong>(Sat., 1 p.m.): The headliner is this intriguing cross-sectional matchup is the running back battle between two of the best ball carriers in Class 4A: <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26257" first="Marco" last="Ybarra"]</strong> of St. Pius X and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26248" first="Braxton" last="Hall"]</strong> of Ruidoso. Ybarra has rushed for 1,403 yards on 231 carries, and will play at the next level. Hall has 1,173 yards on 190 carries.  Both teams will likely lean on their stud running backs. May the best ground game win. <strong>Valencia (7) at Bloomfield</strong> (2)(Fri., 7 p.m.): It’s a revenge game in the Four Corners. Valencia handed Bloomfield its only loss of the season, 34-21, on Sept. 24 and the Bobcats are looking to “rectify a wrong.” Bloomfield QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="208748" first="Ryan" last="Sharpe"]</strong> missed the first meeting with an injury and is listed as doubtful for Friday’s game. If he can’t go, freshman <strong>Blake Spencer</strong> or senior <strong>Drew Perez</strong> will get the start. Valencia trounced Taos, 53-23, in the first round. Jaguars QB <strong>Rey Garcia</strong> threw for three TD and ran for three more to lead Valencia. Their defense must find a way to slow down a Bloomfield offense averaging 36.5 points per game. <strong>CLASS 3A</strong>: <strong>Hope Christian (8) at Raton (1)</strong>(Sat., 1 p.m.): The offensive stars will be on parade in Raton, which is located along I-25 at the New Mexico-Colorado border. Hope Christian features <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26270" first="James" last="Jenkins"]</strong>, one of the most dynamic players in Class 3A. Their second most dangerous weapon could be kicker [player_tooltip player_id="210966" first="Logan" last="Fuller"]. Raton is the No. 1 seed largely because of a prolific offense led by QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26234" first="Dylan" last="Quartieri"]</strong> and RB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="138053" first="Cayden" last="Walton"]</strong>. Look for a lot of points to be scored in this one. <strong>NMMI (5) at St. Michael’s</strong> (4)(Sat., 1 p.m.): NMMI got the playoffs started on the right foot with a 48-8 win over Thoreau. The Colts are overshadowed in their hometown by Goddard and Roswell, but they’re a very good football team. QB <strong>Juan Badillo</strong> has the ball in his hands a lot. St. Michael’s battled Covid issues a few weeks ago and enters the playoffs burdened with a two-game losing streak. However, they were still able to garner a top four seed. <strong>West Las Vegas (6) at Robertson (3)</strong>((Sat., Noon); Emotions will be high in Las Vegas for this one as two bitter cross-town rivals  clash in the quarterfinals. WLV beat Cobre at home, 48-28, in the first-round last week. Freshman QB <strong>C.J. Perea</strong> (2,084 passing yards) and RB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26269" first="Damien" last="Gallegos"]</strong> (1,468 rushing yards) spark the Dons. Robertson beat WLV, 40-27 in the regular season finale two weeks ago. QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26261" first="Matthew" last="Gonzales"]</strong> is four rushing yards away from joining the exclusive 1,000-1,000 club. <strong>Dexter (10) at Socorro (2)</strong>(Fri., 7 p.m.): Socorro has quietly become one of the top programs in Class 3A. Their only loss this season was to St. Michael’s when their three best players missed the game, presumably because of injuries. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="138083" first="Marcus" last="Armijo"]</strong> and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="135324" first="Jordan" last="Armijo"]</strong> lead the Warriors offense. Dexter won on the road at Cuba in the quarterfinals, so they’ve proven they can play a great game in hostile territory. Dual threat QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="134967" first="Juan" last="Fuentes"]</strong> is the Demons’ main offensive weapon. https://twitter.com/lvtwildcatsfb/status/1457121292390322177 https://twitter.com/WilsonHU43/status/1457002210743570435 https://twitter.com/SartanX/status/1459160859876360192 &nbsp;