Championship Weekend in Review: Top Performers

Championship Saturday featured plenty of exceptional performances in all classifications. We told you about three players in our weekly Whiparound posted Monday: <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="138204" first="Josh" last="Perry"]</strong> (Cleveland), <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="137885" first="Paul" last="Cieremans"]</strong> (Los Lunas) and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26261" first="Matthew" last="Gonzales"]</strong> (Robertson). Here are some more top performers (listed in alphabetical order): <strong>Ashton Aranda, Lovington</strong>: The Wildcats may be losing their top three receivers to graduation, but Aranda, a junior, showed in the Class 4A title game that 2022 could be another great season for the Wildcats’ offense. Aranda rushed for 2 TDs  and threw for 3 more as Lovington rallied from an early 13-point deficit to beat Ruidoso, 41-21. The Wildcats scored 28 straight points at one stretch. Aranda was 11-of-17 for 173 yards in the title game and finished the season with 2,180 passing yards and 29 TD. <strong>Karlos Cieremans, Los Lunas</strong>: Cieremans rushed for a pair of first quarter TDs to help Los Lunas jump out to a 20-7 lead over Artesia after the first quarter. Cieremans was a key figure in Los Lunas rushing for 408 yards. Combining with QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="137885" first="Paul" last="Cieremans"]</strong> (288 yards on the ground), Karlos finished with 95 yards rushing on 21 carries. <strong>Devin Flores, St. Michael’s</strong>: On a day when the Horsemen offense struggled to get anything going, Flores accounted for St. Michael’s lone score with a 60-yard TD reception from QB [player_tooltip player_id="26272" first="Zach" last="Martinez"]. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="138091" first="Ace" last="Gonzalez"], Robertson</strong>: The Cardinals’ offensive line dominated St. Michael’s defensive line all game long and continuously opened holes for Gonzales to run through. Gonzalez, who play center, played a huge role in those efforts. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26248" first="Braxton" last="Hall"], Ruidoso</strong>: The Warriors may have lost the 4A championship game in Hall’s final game for Ruidoso, but the senior RB was impressive, as usual. He rushed for 92 yards and 3 TD on 17 carries to lift the Ruidoso offense. Hall finished the season with 1,503 rushing yards and 17 TD. Hall totaled 2,785 rushing yards and 28 TD in his brilliant career. He will definitely be missed. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="134985" first="Tayten" last="Hilliard"], Lovington</strong>: Hilliard wrapped up a sensational senior season by catching 5 passes for 108 yards and 1 TD in the 4A title game. He also contributed 11 tackles on defense, cementing his status as one of the top 2-way players in the state. <strong>Zaden Lopez, Artesia</strong>: Lopez caught 2 TD passes against Los Lunas, a 66-yard connection with Nathan Taylor in the first quarter and a 30-yard pass in the fourth quarter that cut the Tigers lead to 34-28. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="135336" first="Joseph" last="Perez"], Lovington</strong>: Perez has been one of the top defensive players in Class 4A all season long and in Saturday’s win over Ruidoso, Perez was elite again with a staggering 21 tackles. After spotting Ruidoso an early 13-0 lead, the Lovington defense held the warriors to just seven points over the final 3 quarters. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="198295" first="Devin" last="Rice"], Rio Rancho</strong>: With star RB [player_tooltip player_id="26227" first="Zach" last="Vigil"] limited because of injured ribs, the Rams’ offense struggled in the 6A championship game. Rice gave Rio Rancho hope in the second quarter by returning a kickoff 95 yards for a TD and then catching a 10-yard TD pass from QB <strong>Dominick Priddy</strong> to cut the deficit to 21-14. <strong>Nathan Taylor, Artesia</strong>: The Bulldogs’ senior QB wrapped up his prep career by throwing for 434 yards and 4 TD in Artesia’s 40-28 loss to Los Lunas in the Class 5A title game. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="139521" first="Evan" last="Wysong"], Cleveland</strong>: Perry, returning after missing several games due to an injury, grabbed the headlines in the Class 6A title game, but Wysong enjoyed a great game himself with 91 rushing yards and 1 TD on 18 carries and completing 9-of-15 passes to lead the Storm to 428 total yards, including a timely 12-play, 88-yard scoring drive in the third quarter. Wysong accounted for 159 total yards. https://twitter.com/strat_shufelt/status/1465830084783210497 https://twitter.com/Prid_dy/status/1465901805024382980 https://twitter.com/AndresGAguirre6/status/1464420368442036226 &nbsp;