Weekly Whiparound: First Round Playoff Edition

The first round of the 2021 New Mexico High School Football playoffs is complete, and that means we’re down to the Final 8 in Classifications 6A-3A and the Final Four in Class 2A. Here are some of the best performances, best games, fascinating numbers and other fun stuff from the weekend. The quarterfinal round of the playoffs begins Fri. night. <strong>Team of the Week</strong>: <strong>Dexter</strong>. Just one lower-seeded team won in the first round across all classifications and it was the Demons. They made the long (300 miles one-way) trip to Cuba and dominated the Rams in a 35-0 victory. Dexter has been led all season by QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="134967" first="Juan" last="Fuentes"]</strong>, who has rushed for over 1,000 yards and thrown for over 500 yards. Dexter has one of the top rushing attacks in Class 3A. Now they travel to Socorro to face the No. 2 seeded Warriors. <strong>Player of the Week</strong>: <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="135097" first="Kaden" last="Valdez"], Volcano Vista</strong>. Valdez and Hawks quarterback <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26247" first="Josh" last="Gerardo"]</strong> connected on two long TD passes and Valdez showed off some fancy footwork along the sidelines on a couple of other catches in Volcano Vista’s 49-17 victory over Carlsbad Friday night at Community Stadium. Valdez finished with 6 receptions for 151 yards and 2 TD. Gerardo threw for 381 yards in the win, while [player_tooltip player_id="208826" first="Elliot" last="Paskett-Bell"] had 5 receptions for 110 yards. Volcano Vista advances to face Albuquerque metro rival La Cueva Friday night at Wilson Stadium. <strong>Best Team Offensive Performance</strong>: <strong>Volcano Vista</strong>. Sure, the Hawks have one of the most explosive offenses in the state with QB [player_tooltip player_id="26247" first="Josh" last="Gerardo"] and an array of talented receivers and running backs. But Carlsbad is still a proud program, so it was a bit unexpected to watch Volcano Vista shred the Cavemen for 495 yards in total offense in the Hawk’s 49-17 win. As we mentioned, most of those yards came from Gerardo and the Hawks’ receivers. But Volcano Vista ran the ball effectively as well, certainly enough to keep the Carlsbad from defending the pass exclusively. Volcano Vista rushed for 114 yards. <strong>Best Team Defensive Performance</strong>: <strong>Hobbs</strong>. The Eagles held visiting Eldorado to a first quarter safety in cruising to a surprisingly easy 36-2 victory at Watson Memorial Stadium in Hobbs. Eldorado arrived in southeastern New Mexico looking to run the football and play solid defense, but it was Hobbs that dominated play from the opening kickoff. Controlling the line of scrimmage with their physical play, Hobbs stonewalled Eldorado’s ground game and QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="134908" first="Colton" last="Graham"]</strong> threw 3 TD passes to <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="137921" first="Kaden" last="Trevino"]</strong>. Hobbs makes the long trip to Rio Rancho to face No. 1 seed Cleveland in the quarterfinals on Saturday. <strong>Best Game: Belen 25, Deming 21. </strong>Belen RB <strong>Diego Avila</strong> closed out the scoring in a hard-fought battle on the Eagles’ home field by running for 19-yard TD with just over 8 minutes remaining. The TD run capped off a huge night for Avila, who totaled 167 yards on just 11 carries, including a 77-yard scamper. <strong>Rivalry Weekend Renewed: </strong>The quarterfinal round is highlighted by several rematches, including the much-anticipated Las Cruces-Centennial duel Friday night at the Field of Dreams. A few weeks ago, Centennial rallied from a huge third-quarter deficit to stun the Bulldawgs, 42-41, and earn the No. 4 seed in the 6A playoffs. Also, La Cueva-Volcano Vista, Cibola-Rio Rancho, Goddard-Roswell, Belen-Los Lunas, Silver-Lovington and West Las Vegas-Robertson. Goddard will face cross-city rival Roswell after beating Valley, 56-14, at the Wool Bowl Friday night. The Rockets were bolstered by the return of QB <strong>Adrian Vega</strong>, who suffered a injury in the first half of the first game and missed the remainder of the regular season. <strong>Richard Torrez</strong> returned as well, and intercepted a pass and scored a TD in the first quarter to give Goddard an early 14-0 lead. The lead widened to 28-0 before Valley finally scored late in the second quarter. . . Silver gets another opportunity to upend No. 1 seed Lovington after the Wildcats won the first meeting, 48-16, on Oct. 15. Silver upended Kirtland Central, 40-9, in Silver City on Saturday. . .West Las Vegas earned a rematch with rival Robertson by beating Cobre, 48-28, at home. Freshman QB <strong>C.J. Perea</strong> threw for 214 yards on 14-of-24 passing and rushed for 84 more, and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26269" first="Damien" last="Gallegos"]</strong> rushed for 279 yards for the Dons, who will look to avenge a loss to the cross-town Cardinals a couple of weeks ago. <strong>Southern Teams Thrive: </strong>If there was one central theme  in the first round of the playoffs, it was this: the South dominated the North. Eight teams located in the Four Corners or north of Santa Fe lost in the first round, mostly to Southern based schools. In 5A, Piedra Vista was blanked by Santa Teresa, 21-0, and Los Alamos was crushed by Mayfield, 49-3. Piedra Vista didn’t reach 100 yards in total offense until the fourth quarter. At Las Cruces, Mayfield jumped out to a 35-0 lead over Los Alamos before the midway point of the second quarter and led, 42-3, at halftime. . .In Class 4A, three northern teams (Kirtland Central, Aztec, Taos) lost by a combined 128-39. Ruidoso beat Aztec, 35-7 as QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="208746" first="Cooper" last="Pritchett"]</strong> threw for 164 yards and was supported by a balanced running attack. Kirtland Central lost to Silver for the second time this season. Taos lost at Valencia, 53-23. . .In Class 3A, Navajo Prep lost to Hope Christian, 57-36, in an offensive shootout at Wilson Stadium while Thoreau lost to NMMI, 48-8, in Roswell and Cuba was blanked at home by Dexter, 35-0.      <strong>   </strong> <strong>Road Warriors: </strong>One reason (or excuse, depending on your perspective) for the lack of success experienced by the aforementioned northern schools might have been the length of the road trips. For example, Piedra Vista wins the Road Warrior Award of the Week after traveling nearly 900 miles round-trip to Santa Teresa. In a bit of irony, the Desert Warriors must now travel the same distance to Farmington next weekend to face the No. 1 seed Scorpions. In addition, Eldorado traveled 650 miles roundtrip to Hobbs, Los Alamos traveled about the same distance for their game against Mayfield in Las Cruces, Kirtland Central traveled approximately 730 miles roundtrip to Silver City, Aztec traveled 725 miles roundtrip to Ruidoso, Thoreau traveled over 600 miles roundtrip to face NMMI in Roswell and Cobre traveled 750 miles to Las Vegas. With gas prices soaring, the transportation costs for all of these trips must have been staggering. <strong>Things You Need To Know</strong>: 2023 Cibola QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="137861" first="Aden" last="Chavez"]</strong> should surpass the 3,000-yard single season passing mark in the Cougars’ quarterfinal matchup at Rio Rancho Friday night. If Cibola hadn’t had a game against Highland cancelled earlier this season, Chavez would have already eclipsed 3,000 passing yards. He currently has 2,855 passing yards with 30 TD and 9 INT. He threw for 348 yards  and 4 TD in Cibola’s 41-15 first-round win over Sandia. The Matadors scored the first points of the game before Cibola rattled off 41 straight points. . .Only one team that scored fewer than 21 points won in the opening round. Albuquerque Academy beat Bernalillo, 14-6 in a game in which neither team scored in the second half. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="138056" first="Cole" last="Conway"]</strong> scored on a short run and WR <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="137928" first="Kellan" last="Gehres"]</strong> caught a 32-yard TD pass as the Chargers downed the Spartans for the second time this season. . .Las Cruces dominated Clovis, 42-7, at the Field of Dreams as QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26253" first="Dallas" last="Boyd"]</strong>, RB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="134990" first="Elijah" last="Ogas"]</strong> and WR <strong>Zakye Hawkins</strong> combined for all six of the Bulldawgs’ TD to secure the rematch with Centennial. . .Artesia and Mayfield meet for the first time since 1974 in the quarterfinals Saturday afternoon at the Bulldog Bowl. . .Hope Christian PK [player_tooltip player_id="210966" first="Logan" last="Fuller"] visited UTEP for Saturday night’s home game against nationally ranked Texas-San Antonio. https://twitter.com/PrepRedzoneNM/status/1456827802850770949 https://twitter.com/Brandega/status/1457147247523631104 <strong>QUARTERFINAL ROUND SCHEDULE: </strong>Here is the quarterfinal round schedule for Classes 6A-3A. Games will be played Friday night and Saturday afternoon. <strong>  </strong> <strong>CLASS 6A</strong>: Hobbs (8) at Cleveland (1), Sat., 1 p.m. Las Cruces (5) at Centennial (4), Fri., 7 p.m. Volcano Vista (6) at La Cueva (3), Fri., 7 p.m. Cibola (7) at Rio Rancho (2), Fri., 7 p.m. <strong>CLASS 5A</strong>: Santa Teresa (8) at Farmington (1), Fri., 7 p.m. Mayfield (5) at Artesia (4), Sat., 1 p.m. Goddard (6) at Roswell (3)(Wool Bowl), Fri., 7 p.m. Belen (7) at Los Lunas (2), Sat., 2 p.m. <strong>CLASS 4A</strong>: Albuquerque Academy (5) at Moriarty (4), Fri., 7 p.m. Valencia (7) at Bloomfield (2), Fri., 7 p.m. Silver (8) at Lovington (1), Sat., 1 p.m. Ruidoso (6) at St. Pius X (3), TBA <strong>CLASS 3A</strong>: Hope Christian (8) at Raton (1), TBA NMMI (5) at St. Michael’s (4), Sat., 1 p.m. Robertson (3) at West Las Vegas (6), Sat., Noon Dexter (10) at Socorro (2), Fri., 7 p.m. https://twitter.com/artesiafootball/status/1456817810177359875 https://twitter.com/LaCuevaFootball/status/1457445999216005124 https://twitter.com/FanaticBobcat/status/1457475481947631616 https://twitter.com/lvt_ad/status/1457120047759912960