Week 8 Whiparound: Top Performances, Best Games and Fun Stuff

Week 8 of the New Mexico High School football season is complete. Here is the eighth edition of our Weekly Whiparound, which takes a deep dive into everything that happened on the field:    Team of the Week: Silver. In one of the best Class 4A matchups of the season, Silver knocked Bloomfield from the unbeaten ranks with a convincing 45-6 victory at Socorro High School in a neural site game. [player_tooltip player_id='208819' first='Aidan' last='Granado'] (244 all-purpose yards) rushed for 154 yards and 3 touchdowns on 18 carries to spark the Fighting Colts offense. Silver is now ranked No. 1 in the new MaxPreps rankings released Sunday afternoon. Four 4A schools are 6-1: Silver, Portales, Bloomfield and Taos. Silver begins district play next weekend and will be favored to win District 4A-3 against Grants, St. Pius X and Valencia. If the Fighting Colts run the table, they will likely be the No. 1 seed for the 4A playoffs.                               Honorable mention: Centennial; Volcano Vista; Robertson; Jal; Clovis.                      Player of the Week: Elliot Pasket-Bell, Volcano Vista. In a game that lasted just three quarters due to the NMAA's 50-point mercy-rule, Pasket-Bell (34-of-44) passed for 517 yards and 5 TD to lead the Hawks to a surprisingly lopsided 57-7 win over Cibola, which lost QB [player_tooltip player_id='137861' first='Aden' last='Chavez'] for possibly the season with an injury (see below). Pasket-Bell also rushed for 128 yards on 7 carries, averaging 18.3 yards per carry. Volcano Vista piled up 660 yards in total offense in just three quarters against the Cibola defense. Fourteen of Pasket-Bell's completions went to WR Tristan Cordova, who finished with 258 receiving yards and 2 TD. Volcano Vista had 4 scoring drives of 77+ yards in the first half.                    Honorable Mention: J.J. Arellano, Rio Rancho (6 TD passes and 137 rushing yards on 23 attempts); [player_tooltip player_id='208819' first='Aidan' last='Granado'] (Silver).                        Best Team Offensive Performance: Volcano Vista. The fact the Hawks totaled over 650 offensive yards in just three quarters of action is impressive for a high school team. Volcano Vista rang up 31 first downs and scored touchdowns on their first five possessions as they moved the ball seemingly at will against the overmatched Cibola defense.       Best Team Defensive Performance: Centennial. Hobbs came into Friday's night's showdown at Watson Stadium with the Hawks averaging an impressive 49.5 points in their first six games. They had scored fewer than 44 points only once, a 30-20 win over Rio Rancho. But in rain-soaked and windy conditions, the Centennial defense held Hobbs to its lowest point total of the season, and just seven points in the second half in a 27-20 road victory. Centennial's win sets up a District 6A-3 battle between the Hawks and Carlsbad (4-3, 2-0) next Saturday afternoon at Field of Dreams in Las Cruces. Carlsbad rallied from an early 13-0 deficit to beat Organ Mountain, 33-26, Thursday. The winner of that game will control its own destiny.   Best Game: Alamogordo 13, Las Cruces 10. After dropping four of its first five games, the Bulldawgs were in desperation mode against Alamogordo, playing its first season in Class 6A. But the Tigers' defense was up to the challenge, forcing three turnovers in the first half and five overall. This game was a defensive slugfest of the first degree. The outcome boiled down to one play by the Las Cruces offense from the Alamogordo 5-yard line with 20 seconds left. The Tigers' intercepted the pass by freshman QB Gunnar Guardiola to hold on for its first victory over Las Cruces since 2006.             Honorable Mention: Dexter 14, Hope Christian 13 (2 OT); Eldorado 42, Sandia 39 (2 OT); Shiprock 24, Gallup 19.   Best Rivalry Win: Jal 50, Eunice 0. For the moment, Jal (8-0) left no doubt as to the best team in Class 2A. The Panthers rolled past defending 2A champion and local rival Eunice, mercy ruling the Cardinals. [player_tooltip player_id='138093' first='Alexavier' last='Carreon'] rushed for 110 yards and 4 TD on 17 carries. Jal's win sets up a showdown with No. 2 Texico Friday night.        [player_tooltip player_id='137861' first='Aden' last='Chavez'] Injury Update: As soon as Cibola QB [player_tooltip player_id='137861' first='Aden' last='Chavez'] fell to the turf in the second quarter of Friday night's game against rival Volcano Vista, you knew something was terribly wrong. Those thoughts were confirmed when the medical professional put Chavez's leg in a soft cast and wheeled him off the field. It was clear he had suffered a serious, potentially season-ending injury. Within 24 hours, those fears were realized: broken ankle. Thus, it looks like Chavez's prep career is over barring a miracle recovery over the next month.         Road Warriors: Farmington, playing it inaugural season in Class 6A, improved to 3-0 on the road this season against New Mexico schools with a thrilling 48-41 victory over West Mesa Thursday night at Community Stadium. Scorpions QB Triel Griego completed 20-of-29 passes for 287 yards and 4 TD. Farmington jumped out to  27-6 lead in the first half before West Mesa rallied to tie the score at 27-27 early in the third quarter behind QB [player_tooltip player_id='275488' first='Elijah' last='Brody']. With the score tied 34-34, Farmington scored two TDs to take a 48-34 lead. Brody threw a 43-yard TD pass to [player_tooltip player_id='138047' first='Chris' last='Johnson'] on 4th down with 4:46 left. Farmington took possession and ran out the clock. Griego  connected with Jevon Smith for 24 yards on third-and-long to seal the win with about a minute left.             Who's Still Unbeaten?: Four previously undefeated teams lost in Week 8: Bloomfield, Cibola, Hobbs and St. Michael's. That means just two undefeated teams remain in the state in Classes 6A-2A: Socorro and Jal. The Panthers crushed Eunice (see above) while Socorro enjoyed a bye week. The Warriors host Hatch Valley in a de facto District 3A-3 championship game Friday night. The other two teams in the district are Cobre and Hot Springs, and both Socorro and Hatch Valley will be heavily favored to beat both those teams.       Walton Watch: Raton RB [player_tooltip player_id='138053' first='Cayden' last='Walton'] rushed for 332 yards and 5 TD on 15 carries in the Tigers' 42-7 victory over West Las Vegas  Sat. night in Raton. Walton now has 2,166 rushing yards and 30 TD in 8 games, raising his career rushing total to 7,014. He is just the 4th New Mexico RB in state history to eclipse 7,000 career rushing yards. He trails all-time leader David McGee (7,170) by just 156 yards. With two regular season games left + minimum one playoff game, Walton should soon become the state's all-time leader in career rushing yardage, possibly as soon as next Saturday night when the Tigers host St. Michael's.   Things You Need To Know: Thanks to sophomore QB J.J. Arellano, Rio Rancho has won most of its games since senior QB [player_tooltip player_id='274972' first='Noah' last='Nelson'] went down with an injury and is now 5-2 with three games remaining, one of them against rival Cleveland. Arellano was sensational in the Rams' 49-27 victory over Atrisco Heritage Saturday afternoon at Community Stadium. Arellano had 6 TD passes, a 72-yard TD run and 137 rushing yards. The Rio Rancho defense blanked the prolific Atrisco offense in the second half as the Rams steadily pulled away. . .Along with Piedra Vista, Valley has been one of Class 5A's biggest surprises. They came into Week 8 ranked No. 5 in the MaxPreps poll. In rainy conditions Saturday, Valley beat Manzano, 49-23, to protect its lofty ranking. With games remaining against Del Norte, Los Alamos and Rio Grande, the Vikings have an excellent chance of finishing with at least 7 or 8 wins and playoff seeding in the upper half of the bracket. . .Santa Rosa is on the rise in Class 2A. The Lions improved to 6-2 overall with a 61-6 win over McCurdy, their fifth straight victory. Santa Rosa lost to Texico, 23-20, in Week 2, so look for the Lions to grab either the No. 3 or No. 4 seed for the Class 2A playoffs. . .Robertson knocked St. Michael's from the ranks of the unbeaten with a 28-20 road victory Sat. afternoon in Santa Fe. Robertson, the reigning Class 3A champions, rushed for 162 yards (QB [player_tooltip player_id='138091' first='Ace' last='Gonzalez'] had 86 yards) in sloppy conditions, including the game-winning score with 4 minutes left, and made a crucial fourth-down stop late in the game to beat the Horsemen. We'll likely see these two teams square off again in November. . .Few teams in the state are hotter than Taos. The Tigers won their six straight game on Saturday by blanking Grants, 44-0. QB [player_tooltip player_id='269567' first='Daemon' last='Ely'] threw TD passes of 49, 54 and 80 yards in the first half as Taos jumped out to a 38-0 halftime lead and cruised home from there. . .Hope Christian must be wondering how they lost Saturday afternoon's game to Dexter, 14-13. First, the Huskies scored late to tie the score, 6-6, but missed the PAT to send  the game to overtime. Then, after recovering a Dexter fumble, Hope Christian was literally inches from victory but they also fumbled on a fourth down play inside the 1-yard line. In the second OT, the Huskies scored first to take a 13-6 lead. But Dexter responded with a 12-yard TD pass. The Demons elected to go for 2 points and connected on the pass into the end zone for the stunning victory. . .Highland won its 5th straight game with a lopsided 56-7 win over Pojoaque Valley as QB Alex Lopez and RB Amiri Mumba each rushed for 2 TD and Mumba returned a kickoff for a TD. . .Los Lunas shutout Albuquerque, 27-0, as [player_tooltip player_id='137885' first='Paul' last='Cieremans'] fired a 92-yard TD pass to [player_tooltip player_id='274796' first='Fabian' last='Trujillo'] and [player_tooltip player_id='335475' first='Kaden' last='Bell'] booted 2 FG. With games remaining against Clovis and Santa Fe, Los Lunas should be heavily favored to win District 6A-5.                            Key Week 9 Games (Oct. 13-15):   Roswell at Artesia   Cibola at Rio Rancho   St. Michael's at Raton (Sat.)   Mayfield at Goddard   Portales at Albuq. Academy (Fri., 3 p.m.)   La Cueva at West Mesa   Belen at Highland   Santa Teresa at Deming   Cleveland at Atrisco Heritage   Sandia at Farmington   Taos at Espanola Valley   Lovington at Bernalillo   Bloomfield at Kirtland Central   Loving at Eunice   Hatch Valley at Socorro   Jal at Texico   Piedra Vista at Miyamura   Las Cruces at Organ Mountain   Carlsbad at Centennial   Hobbs at Alamogordo   <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/1578617274910396416 </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/1578623540303040512 </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/1578868851734761473 </div></figure>

Week 8 of the New Mexico High School football season is complete. Here is the eighth edition of our Weekly Whiparound, which takes a deep dive into everything that happened on the field: