November Madness: Class 4A & 3A Previews; Score Updates

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Here is how Classes 4A and 3A look for the first round of the playoffs as of Friday night<strong>. &nbsp;</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Class 4A</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Valencia (9) at Aztec (8), Fri., 7 p.m.</strong> – Valencia overcame a 1-5 start by winning three of their final four games. The loss came last week to Silver in a winner-take-all district championship game. Senior QB Rey Garcia is Valencia's leading rusher. Aztec QB [player_tooltip player_id='137893' first='Marcquis' last='Henry'] has thrown for 1,172 yards and 10 TD. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Moriarty 53, Kirtland Central 2</strong> – No secret what Moriarty was going to do on offense – run the football out of the Wing-T formation. The key question was whether Kirtland Central could stop it. The answer: No. Moriarty jumped out to a 40-2 lead in the third quarter and cruised home from there. The Pintos travel to No. 2 Bloomfield for the quarterfinals next weekend. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>St. Pius X (12) at Portales (5), Fri., 7 p.m.</strong> – If St. Pius X has any chance to pull the massive upset, they must find a way to contain Portales QB Paxton Culpepper, who has passed for 1,954 yards and accounted for 29 TD. The Sartans struggled early in that area, falling behind 20-0 on the road.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Albuquerque Academy 7, Bernalillo 6</strong>: Albuquerque Academy made a late defensive stand, intercepting a Bernalillo pass in the red zone with about 2-1/2 minutes left to preserve the one-point win. Bernalillo was about to get the ball back with just enough time to run a couple of plays but jumped offsides to give the Chargers a first down . Landen Martinez ran for a 2-yard TD for the Chargers. [player_tooltip player_id='269560' first='David' last='Llanez'] scored a 53-yard TD on a middle screen for Bernalillo. But the Spartans missed the PAT and that proved to be the difference in the game. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Class 3A</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Cobre (9) at Dexter (8), Sat., 1 p.m</strong>. – Dexter got off to a slow start by losing 4 of its first 5 games. But the Demons rebounded to win four straight games heading into last week's winner take all district championship game against Ruidoso. Dexter wants to run the football with nearly 300 attempts in 10 games. Cobre surprised hatch Valley two weeks ago on the road to set up a winner-take-all championship game against Socorro. Cobre lost and got the No. 9 seed. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>West Las Vegas 62, Newcomb 16</strong>: West Las Vegas advances to face No. 2 seed Ruidoso next Friday night. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Hatch Valley (11) at Raton (6), Sat., 1 p.m.</strong> – Probably the best running back matchup of the first round with Hatch Valley RB [player_tooltip player_id='138201' first='Layton' last='Gillis'] opposed by Raton RB [player_tooltip player_id='138053' first='Cayden' last='Walton'], the state's all-time leading rusher.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Hope Christian (12) at Thoreau (5), Sat., 1 p.m.</strong> – Perhaps no team in the playoffs has a wider gap between its MaxPreps ranking and playoff seeding than Thoreau. The &nbsp;Hawks were ranked No. 12 in the final MaxPreps 3A poll but awarded a No. 5 seed by the NMAA selection committee. RB [player_tooltip player_id='138082' first='Brent' last='Miller'] is the main offensive threat for Hope Christian.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Class 2A (Quarterfinals)</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Escalante (8) at Jal (1), Sat., 1 p.m.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Estancia (5) at Eunice (4), Fri., 7 p.m.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Loving (6) at Santa Rosa (3), Fri., 7 p.m.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Tularosa (7) at Texico (2), Fri., 7 p.m. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->