Week 11 Whiparound: Top Performances, Best Games and Fun Stuff
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Week 11 of the 2023 New Mexico High School football season is complete and now we look forward to the playoffs. Here is our latest edition of the Weekly Whiparound, which takes a deep dive into everything that happened on…
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Continue ReadingWeek 11 of the 2023 New Mexico High School football season is complete and now we look forward to the playoffs. Here is our latest edition of the Weekly Whiparound, which takes a deep dive into everything that happened on the field over the past three days:
Team of the Week: Grants. After consecutive 1-9 seasons, the Pirates are back in the 4A playoffs in Steve Brown’s first year as head coach, improving to 6-4 with Friday’s 21-14 home victory over St. Pius X. The Pirates and Sartans were tied 14-14 at halftime before Grants scored the lone TD of the second half. Grants is the No. 8 seed in the 4A playoffs and will host No. 9 Albuquerque Academy.
Honorable Mention: Clovis; Espanola Valley; Taos; Deming; West Mesa.
Player of the Week: Amiri Mumba, Highland. Mumba is one of the most underappreciated running backs in the Albuquerque Metro region. Saturday, he piled up 303 rushing yards and 5 TD on a workhorse 31 carries as the Hornets secured a 5A playoff berth with a 43-24 victory over Miyamura. Mumba finished the regular season with 1,685 rushing yards and 8 games of 100+ rushing yards.
Honorable Mention: Kash Roberts (Clovis); Uriel Castro (Bernalillo).
Best Team Offensive Performance: Lovington. Hardly anybody had moved the ball successfully on the Portales defense in the first nine games of the season when the Rams had posted SIX shutouts. However, Lovington found enough holes to amass 443 yards of total offense, including 234 through the air. Wildcats QB Wyatt Gomez was 17-of-27 passing for 213 yards and 1 TD while RB Camon Ochoa rushed for 114 yards on 16 carries. WR Cesar Gonzalez had 10 receptions for 100 yards.
Honorable Mention: Bernalillo.
Best Team Defensive Performance: Robertson. During West Las Vegas’s six-game winning streak entering Saturday’s cross-town rivalry game with Robertson, the Dons had scored 33+ points 5 times, 42+ points 4 times. However, they were completely shut down by a fast, aggressive and hard-hitting Cardinals defense that swarmed to the football all afternoon long. Robertson thoroughly stonewalled the Dons’ running game and when they threw it, defenders were usually there. They had two interceptions.
Best Game: Clovis 30, Los Lunas 29. Clovis staged one of the greatest comebacks of the season, stunning Los Lunas in a winner-taker-all district championship game. The Wildcats trailed by 17 points (three scores) midway through the third quarter against a team many had pegged for a top four seed. But Clovis completed the amazing comeback with a memorable 15-play, 85-yard drive capped by Jett Stone’s 11-yard TD run with 1:23 remaining. Los Lunas got the ball back and drove down the field for a do-or-die 41-yard field goal attempt with seconds remaining on the clock but the kick sailed wide left, sending Clovis to the 6A playoffs as an automatic qualifier. Stone and Kash Roberts combined for 361 rushing yards on 54 carries. Clovis ran the ball 60 times compared to just 3 passes.
Honorable Mention: Navajo Prep 38, Newcomb 36; Centennial 30, Las Cruces 23.
Best Rivalry Win: Robertson 37, West Las Vegas 6. The Cardinals haven’t lost to their crosstown counterparts in more than a decade. Eying the No. 1 seed in the 3A playoffs, WLV hoped to end that lengthy losing streak on Saturday. But Robertson, especially its suffocating defense, had other ideas. Yielding little on the ground and through the air, the Cardinals’ defense sparked the rout that knocked WLV to the No. 4 seed when the playoff brackets were revealed Sunday morning. Robertson built a 21-0 lead in the final minutes of the second quarter before the strong-legged placekicker Aaron Doss Aaron Doss 6'1" | 160 lbs | K Robertson | 2025 State NM booted a 47-yard field goal on the final snap of the first half for a 24-0 lead. Robertson QB Jesse James Gonzales tossed a pair of TD passes. Biggest beneficiary of Robertson’s win? St. Michael’s. The Horsemen, which routed Sanat Fe Indian School, 54-0, prevailed in a 3-way tie atop the district standings and was given the No. 1 seed for the 3A playoffs.
Honorable Mention: Cleveland 37, Rio Rancho 0; Roswell 38, Goddard 6.
Who Won The Winner-Take-All District Championship Games?
Cleveland at Rio Rancho (6A-1): Cleveland continued its domination of the City of Vision rivalry with a 37-0 victory over the Rams. The Storm defense held Rio Rancho to 166 total yards. Storm QB Jordan Kekoa Hatch Jordan Kekoa Hatch 6'3" | 190 lbs | QB Cleveland | 2026 State NM threw for 220 yards on 18-of-22 passing and RB Harris Mbueha rushed for 125 yards on 190 carries.
Centennial at Las Cruces (6A-3): The Hawks captured the district title by beating the rival Bulldawgs in a back-and-forth affair at Field of Dreams. Centennial scored the final nine points of the game after Las Cruces inched ahead, 23-21, on Dalin Walker’s 30-yard field goal. But Jesus Barraza raced 64 yards for a TD late in the 3rd quarter and Centennial never trailed again.
Los Lunas at Clovis (6A-5): See Above.
Deming at Gadsden (5A-3): Trailing 10-6 early in the fourth quarter of a defensive struggle, Deming scored the game-winning points of the game on a 21-yard TD pass from QB Ryan Alfaro to WR Jared Almanza Jared Almanza 6'2" | 170 lbs | WR Deming | 2024 State NM . Gadsden had a couple of chances to go ahead in the fourth but was denied by the Deming defense. The district championship earned Deming the No. 5 seed in the 5A playoffs.
Portales at Lovington (4A-4): Lovington pieced together an impressive offensive display while the defense held the Rams’ high-scoring offense to 21 points in an eight-point win in Lovington. Demarcus Thompson had another outstanding two-way game with 69 rushing yards and a team-leading 9 tackles on defnese.
Navajo Prep at Newcomb (3A-1): Navajo Prep QB Xavier Nez Xavier Nez QB Navajo Prep | 2025 State NM threw for 229 yards and 4 TD as the Eagles outlasted Newcomb, 38-36, to win the district title. Navajo Prep was seeded No. 12 for the 3A playoffs and will face No. 5 NMMI in Roswell on Friday.
Finally, This: La Cueva amassed 532 yards of total offense in a dominant 63-28 victory over Farmington that secured a top four seed for the Bears. QB Cameron Dyer threw for 332 yards and 4 TD while rushing for 117 yards. La Cueva, the No. 3 seed in the 6A playoffs, could face Farmington again in the quarterfinals as the Scorpions square off with No. 6 Volcano Vista in the 1st round. . .Sandia clinched the No. 4 seed in the 6A playoffs with a hard-fought 10-6 victory over Cibola on Thursday night. The Matadors will face Rio Rancho or West Mesa in the quarterfinals on Nov. 10-11. Cibola finished 0-10 but the Cougars had many young players in key roles, including a sophomore starting QB. . .Alamogordo was one of two 5-5 teams that didn’t earn a 6A playoff berth (Atrisco Heritage was the other) but the Tigers concluded the season on a positive note with a 27-0 victory over winless Organ Mountain. RB A’Veion Valdez had 13 carries for 144 yards and 2 TD to lead the Alamogordo offense while Anthony Audette Anthony Audette 5'10" | 170 lbs | RB Alamogordo | 2024 State NM also rushed for 144 yards and 1 TD on 14 attempts. . .Silver won the 4A-3 district championship with a 50-28 victory over Valencia. QB Adan Jacquez rushed for 154 yards and 1 TD while Ezekiel Torres scored 3 TD to lead the Colts. Silver earned a top four seed in the Class 4A playoffs and will face Aztec or Taos in the quarterfinals. . .Frew teams came farther this season than Piedra Vista. The Panthers started 0-4 but won five of its last six games, including a 3-0 mark in district play, to earn the No. # seed in the Class 5A playoffs. . .Santa Teresa won its only game of the season with a 22-16 victory over local rival Chaparral. David Gutierrez rushed for 100 yards while Ulysses Montes Ulysses Montes 5'7" | 160 lbs | WR Santa Teresa | 2025 State NM caught a season high 10 passes for 171 yards for the Desert Warriors. . .Espanola Valley won its first district title in a long time with a 50-0 victory over Pojoaque Valley in a game played Friday afternoon in Espanola with no fans in attendance as a result of a ‘recent threat’. . .Artesia secured the No. 2 seed in Class 5A with a 43-7 victory over Mayfield, finishing the regular season with a 9-1 record, including wins over district champions Deming, Cleveland and Lovington. . .Bloomfield won its 16th straight game dating back to the middle of last season with a 66-0 trouncing of Gallup. The Bobcats are the No. 1 seed for the 4A playoffs as they try to defend their state championship from a season ago. . .In a must-win game for both teams that essentially served as a playoff elimination contest, West Mesa beat Eldorado, 39-21, as QB Elijah Brody accounted for 5 TD (198 rushing yards) and Marcos Ochoa returned a kickoff 95 yards for a TD. The win was enough to get West Mesa into the 6A playoffs as the No. 12 seed. They’ll make the short trip to No. 5 Rio Rancho on Friday night for a 1st-round contest. West Mesas was one of four teams from District 6A-2 to reach the playoffs. . .Albuquerque High (4-6) didn’t make the 6A playoffs but the Bulldogs finished the campaign with three straight wins, offering promise for next season. AHS finished third in District 6A-5 behind Los Lunas and Clovis. The Bulldogs beat Manzano, 14-13, in the regular season finale. . .NMMI won the undisputed District 3A-4 title with a lopsided win over Tucumcari. . .In the battle between Santa Fe’s two 6A programs, Santa Fe beat Capital, 28-21, as the Jaguars suffered yet another close loss. . .Cobre won the District 3A-3 title with a 40-0 win over Hatch Valley. . .Cuba finished 8-2 but did not win its district (Thoreau did) and did not receive an at-large berth to the 3A playoffs. Cub a is ranked No. 15 in the current MaxPreps 3A rankings. . .Aztec trailed Kirtland Central, 16-7, at the end of the first quarter before scoring 41 of the final 47 points in a 48-22 win over the Broncos.
First Round Playoff Games (Nov. 3-4): As announced early Sunday moning, here are the First Round Playoff Games, dates and kickoff times for this weekend:
Class 6A
West Mesa (12) at Rio Rancho (5), Fri. 7 p.m.
Farmington (11) at Volcano Vista (6), Fri. 7 p.m. (Community)
Los Lunas (10) at Las Cruces (7), Fri. 7 p.m.
Clovis (9) at Hobbs (8), Fri 7 p.m.
Class 5A
Belen (12) at Deming (5), Fri., 7 p.m.
Manzano (11) at Valley (6), Sat. 1 p.m. (Milne)
Highland (10) at Los Alamos (7), Fri. 7 p.m.
Mayfield (9) at Gadsden (8), Fri., 7 p.m.
Class 4A
Valencia (12) at Bernalillo (5), Fri., 7 p.m.
Taos (11) at Aztec (6), Sat., 1:30 p.m.
St. Pius X (10) at Espanola Valley (7), Fri. 7 p.m.
Albuquerque Academy (9) at Grants (8), Fri., 7 p.m.
Class 3A
Navajo Prep (12) at NMMI (5), Sat., 1 p.m.
Hatch Valley (11) at Dexter (6), Fri., 7 p.m.
Hope Christian (10) at Socorro (7), Fri. 7 p.m.
Raton (9) at Thoreau (8), Sat., 1 p.m.
Class 2A (Quarterfinals)
Escalante (8) at Eunice (1), Sat. 1 p.m.
Estancia (7) at Texico (2), Sat. 1 p.m.
Loving (6) at Santa Rosa (3), Fri., 7 p.m.
Tularosa (5) at Jal (4), Fri. 6 p.m.