Week 7 Whiparound: Top Performances, Best Games and Fun Stuff

Week 7 of the New Mexico High School football season is complete. Here is the seventh edition of our Weekly Whiparound, which takes a deep dive into everything that happened on the field:    Team of the Week: Roswell. The Coyotes handled Piedra Vista, 32-14, Friday night at the Wool Bowl in a Class 5A between between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the polls. Roswell jumped out to a 14-0 lead after the 1st quarter and were never seriously threatened by the Panthers the rest of the game. Coyote CB Wesley Gallegos intercepted a pass and retuned it for a touchdown late in the first quarter. In the second half, Roswell QB [player_tooltip player_id='425194' first='Manny' last='Fuentez'] made one of the best plays of the year, flipping a TD pass to WR [player_tooltip player_id='1103395' first='Josh' last='Estrada'] when he was horizontal to the ground when being pressured by Piedra Vista defenders. Roswell heads into district play with a 6-1 record and a probable No. 1 ranking in 5A by MaxPreps.           Honorable Mention: Valley, Hot Springs, Clovis, Lovington.                    Player of the Week: [player_tooltip player_id='138088' first='Javyn' last='Morales'], Goddard. Morales didn't touch the ball in Goddard's 51-14 victory at Belen, but the mere fact he was on the field at all earned him POTW honors. Morales suffered a serious knee injury just over a year ago and missed a majority of the 2021 season. He sat out the first six games this season in order to ensure he was 100 percent healthy when he finally returned to action. The long-awaited moment came Friday night. Morales is one of the fastest players in the state and he should be ready to make a major contribution to the Rockets by the time the playoffs start.   Honorable Mention: [player_tooltip player_id='137862' first='Aidan' last='Armenta'] (La Cueva); [player_tooltip player_id='138204' first='Josh' last='Perry'] (Cleveland)                               Best Team Offensive Performance/Best Rivalry Win: La Cueva. Bears QB [player_tooltip player_id='137862' first='Aidan' last='Armenta'] celebrated his verbal commitment to New Mexico by throwing for 555 yards (5th highest single game total in state history) and 3 TD on 28-of-35 passing, and [player_tooltip player_id='269525' first='Gabriel' last='Buie'] rushed for 151 yards on 12 carries as La Cueva trampled rival Eldorado, 63-21. In all, La Cueva passed for 622 yards (backup QB Cameron Dyer threw for 67 yards) and rushed for 159 yards, giving them 781 yards of total offense, a staggering amount in a 48-minute high school.    Best Team Defensive Performance: Cibola. Atrisco Heritage brought one of the state's highest scoring offenses into Friday night's matchup with the Cougars at Community Stadium. The Jaguars had scored 44+ points in 5 straight games, all victories. Atrisco Heritage finished with 363 yards but Cibola managed for the most part to keep them out of the end zone in a 36-20 win. Atrisco scored just seven points until late in the third quarter. Outstanding defensive effort by Cibola.          Best Game: Hope Christian 29, NMMI 28 (OT). After NMMI scored first in overtime and kicked the PAT for a 28-21 lead, the Huskies quickly scored on a TD by Cade Johnston. Hope Christian elected to go for a game-winning 2-point conversion and [player_tooltip player_id='138082' first='Brent' last='Miller'] ran into the end zone for the dramatic walk-off win for the Huskies at Community Stadium.          Honorable Mention: Mayfield 28, Deming 27 (2 TD by the Trojans in final 6 minutes); Valley 48, Portales 47 (Portales goes for 2 and misses with 1:35 left); Los Alamos 35, Bernalillo 34; Carlsbad 47, Alamogordo 37; West Mesa 21, Sandia 14 (85-yard TD pass from [player_tooltip player_id='275488' first='Elijah' last='Brody'] to [player_tooltip player_id='138047' first='Chris' last='Johnson'] on 3rd-and-15 with 2:36 left)        First Wins: Clovis, Hot Springs and Lovington all posted their first victories of the season in Week 7. Clovis gave first-year head coach Andrew McCaw his first victory by kicking a field goal with 3 seconds left to win its District 6A-5 opener, 31-28, over Albuquerque High. . .Lovington made the long trip to Santa Fe and walloped the 6A Demons, 55-8, at Ivan Head Stadium. QB [player_tooltip player_id='269564' first='Ashton' last='Aranda'] completed 12-of-16 passes for 183 yards and Alec Holguin had 3 receptions for 106 yards and 2 TD. Aranda also rushed for 67 yards. The Wildcats begin district play Oct. 14 at Bernalillo. . .Hot Springs senior RB J.J. Garcia rushed for 204 yards on 22 carries as the Tigers beat Crownpoint, 49-12.           Who's Still Unbeaten?: Hobbs (6-0) opened district play with a 44-28 win over Las Cruces at Field of Dreams. The Eagles have one of the most prolific offenses in the state, and they beat the Bulldawgs largely on the ground with [player_tooltip player_id='208821' first='Diego' last='Baeza'] rushing for 116 yards on 21 carries and QB Omar Argott carrying 12 times for 85 yards. Hobbs totaled 235 yards on the ground. [player_tooltip player_id='137921' first='Kaden' last='Trevino'] had 6 receptions for 136 yards. The Eagles have scored 44+ points in 5 of 6 games this season. Hobbs hosts Centennial in a District 6A-3 showdown Friday night at Watson Stadium. . .Who's the other unbeaten team in Class 6A? Cibola. After needing comebacks in its three previous games, Cibola led Atrisco Heritage  for most of the game and posted a 36-20 victory. QB [player_tooltip player_id='137861' first='Aden' last='Chavez'] threw for 346 yards and 3 TD on 29-of-45 passing. TE [player_tooltip player_id='137935' first='Brayden' last='Mummert'] caught 1 TD (capping 13-play, 79-yard drive) and ran for another on 4th down that gave Cibola a 28-7 lead in the 3rd quarter. Cibola overcame 17 penalties. The loss snapped Atrisco's 5-game winning streak. . .In Class 4A, Bloomfield (6-0) beat geographic rival Bayfield (CO), 28-12 as Andrea Gordo scored a pair of TD for the Bobcats. . .In 3A, Socorro (55-0 over Gallup to move to 7-0) and St. Michael's (6-0) both stayed perfect. St. Michael's trampled West Las Vegas, 51-20, holding the Dons to 145 yards in total offense. The Horsemen led, 30-6, at halftime and cruised home from there. Creed Chavez had a punt return and 42-yard run for touchdowns. St. Michael's hosts Robertson on Saturday in a rematch of last November's Class 3A championship game.                     Things You Need To Know: Cleveland's Big Three of QB [player_tooltip player_id='139521' first='Evan' last='Wysong'], RB [player_tooltip player_id='138204' first='Josh' last='Perry'] and WR Nic Trujillo all brought their ‘A' games as the Storm routed Volcano Vista, 56-21, in  Rio Rancho. Perry rushed for 239 yards and FIVE touchdowns while Trujillo caught three TD passes from Wysong. Trujillo and Wysong are both committed to New Mexico. Cleveland scored on its first 8 possessions of the game. The score was tied 14-14 when Perry sandwiched 15 and 63 yard TD runs around a Storm interception. . .Raton RB [player_tooltip player_id='138053' first='Cayden' last='Walton'] rushed for 261 yards and 3 TD on just 6 carries as the Tigers crushed Santa Fe Indian School, 56-6, pushing his career rushing total to 6,682 yards. Raton has three regular season games remaining plus the playoffs. If the Tigers make a deep run in the Class 3A playoffs, Walton could become New Mexico's all-time leading rusher by the time his decorated career is over. . .Taos still hasn't lost since Week 1, improving to 5-1 with a 29-14 victory over Aztec. QB Dameon Ely passed for 2 TD and the Tigers returned the opening kickoff for another TD. . . Mayfield scored two touchdowns in the final 6 minutes to pull out a 28-27 road win at Deming. . . Los Lunas snapped its 4-game losing streak with a 44-21 victory over Capital in Santa Fe, scoring 31 consecutive points in the first half for a 37-7 lead at intermission. Led by QB [player_tooltip player_id='137885' first='Paul' last='Cieremans'] (204 passing yards), the Tigers totaled nearly 400 yards in total offense. . . Kirtland Central junior RB [player_tooltip player_id='1001437' first='Demusico' last='Edsitty'] has emerged as one of the top running backs in the state. He rushed for a season high 175 yards as the Broncos trounced Shiprock, 50-14. . .Albuquerque Academy rallied from a 13-0 deficit to St. Pius X by scoring the final 23 points of the game for a 23-14 victory. . .The Chargers took the lead for good on a 3-yard TD pass from QB [player_tooltip player_id='137884' first='A.J.' last='Rivera'] to Aidan Burdge. . .Highland improved to 4-1 in Class 5A with a 22-6 win over Manzano, scoring 16 points in the 4th quarter. The game-winning points came on a 56-yard TD pass by Alex Lopez to Jakarri Edwards. . . Gadsden QB [player_tooltip player_id='138076' first='Tomas' last='Herrera'] rushed for 139 yards as the Panthers downed Valencia, 20-13, for their 2nd win of the season. . .Artesia (5-2) wrapped up its non-district schedule with an easy 51-0 win over Santa Teresa in a game that ended at halftime. Matthew Saiz returned the opening kickoff for a TD and the Bulldogs were off and running. By the 4-minute mark of the 1st quarter, QB Nye Estrada had thrown 3 TD passes and Artesia led, 28-0.       Key Week 8 Games (Oct. 6-8):   Centennial at Hobbs   Cibola at Volcano Vista   Rio Rancho at Atrisco Heritage (Sat.)   Carlsbad at Organ Mountain   Farmington at West Mesa (Thur.)   Albuquerque High at Los Lunas   Alamogordo at Las Cruces   Manzano at Valley (Sat.)   Robertson at St. Michael's (Sat.)   West Las Vegas at Raton   Eunice at Jal   Ruidoso at NMMI   Sandia at Eldorado   Bloomfield at Silver   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/PrepRedzoneNM/status/1576060925374713857 </div></figure>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/PrepRedzoneNM/status/1576062989018402816 </div></figure>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/PrepRedzoneNM/status/1576065935101677569 </div></figure>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/PrepRedzoneNM/status/1576337859946188800 </div></figure>

Week 7 of the New Mexico High School football season is complete. Here is the seventh edition of our Weekly Whiparound, which takes a deep dive into everything that happened on the field: