November Madness: Class 4A State Championship Game Preview

Class 4A State Championship Game Preview   Who: Lovington (9-3) at Portales (11-1)   Where: Greyhound Stadium, Portales, NM   When: Sat., Nov. 25, 1 p.m.   Lovington and Portales have met three times over the last two seasons, including a 29-21 victory by the Wildcats in a winner-take-all, district championship game less than four weeks ago.   Two themes have emerged from those games: 1) They have been close, hard fought affairs with the largest margin of victory being eight points. Both meetings in 2022 were decided by six points; and 2) Lovington won all three games. Portales' last win  over Lovington came in 2019 during their run  to the 4A championship.   As the host of Saturday's championship game, Portales' task is clear – find a way to finally beat Lovington. The Rams bring one of the top offenses and defenses into the contest, a key reason they've lost just once this season, albeit to the Wildcats in the aforementioned WTADCG.   “Each and every game with Lovington has been a battle,” Portales head coach Jaime Ramirez told Prep Redzone New Mexico. “The last three games have been decided by a touchdown. But we have three losses in a row to them. Any time you play a good team, you have to capitalize on their mistakes and create your own big plays. For this game, I know we're going to make adjustments and they're going to make adjustments. There are definitely things we have to improve on.”            How productive is Portales' offense? They scored 28 points against Bloomfield's stout defense in last week's semifinals. The Bobcats had allowed just 34 points TOTAL in their first 11 games and had pitched five straight shutouts going into last week.       Junior dual threat quarterback [player_tooltip player_id='615523' first='Paxton' last='Culpepper'] has thrown for nearly 2,400 yards and rushed for close to 500 yards this season. He's the Rams' leading rusher with [player_tooltip player_id='1103853' first='Zach' last='Radloff'] serving as another ball carrying threat.   The senior trio of [player_tooltip player_id='591958' first='Zane' last='Mayberry'], [player_tooltip player_id='1103868' first='Braden' last='Beck'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1103881' first='Andru' last='Ontiveros'] are the top receivers in Portales' balanced passing attack.   “We can be very explosive at times on offense,” Ramirez said. “Paxton does a very good job of distributing the ball and finding the open receiver. He's calm, cool and collected back there. He's definitely the leader of the offense. And he has a very good supporting cast that helps him. They don't drop many balls and Paxton throws the ball with pinpoint accuracy most of the time.”   Lovington's defense, while perhaps not on Bloomfield's level, is still pretty good nonetheless. They've played well enough to help the Wildcats win their last six games, including a shutout of Espanola Valley in the quarterfinals. Senior outside linebacker [player_tooltip player_id='1103929' first='Ealan' last='Clayton'], shifted from the third to the second level before the season, leads the Wildcats with 102 tackles. DE Demarcus Thompson, also a talented WR, has 68 tackles with a staggering 36.5 tackles for loss. That means more than half of Thompson's tackles have occurred behind the line of scrimmage. Impressive.   Expect Lovington to throw the football a lot in Saturday's championship game because the powerful right arm of senior QB [player_tooltip player_id='275459' first='Wyatt' last='Gomez'] fuels the Wildcats' prolific offense. Gomez has been rewarded for his patience as he waited until this season to become Lovington's starting QB. He spent the past two seasons behind Ashton Aranda.   “Lovington has always been known for having a dude at quarterback,” Gonzalez said. “Last year, Ashton was a big time threat with his feet. Wyatt can run too and extend plays but he's more of a pocket passer. We had to make a few changes offensively to make it fit for Wyatt. He's an outstanding leader and he's done a great job taking that position over.”         Going into Saturday's game, Gomez is No. 2 in the state in passing yardage (3,292 yards) behind Farmington's [player_tooltip player_id='274791' first='Trel' last='Griego']. Right now, they are the only two quarterbacks to eclipse 3,000 passing yards this season. Gomez needs 300 passing yards Saturday to ascend to the No. 1 spot. Nobody has thrown more TD passes than Gomez (45).     Junior [player_tooltip player_id='613065' first='Camon' last='Ochoa'] is the leading rusher while three receivers have 48+ receptions for the Wildcats: [player_tooltip player_id='275593' first='Cesar' last='Gonzalez'] (76), Thompson (57) and sophomore [player_tooltip player_id='1137867' first='Elijah' last='Rivero'] (48). Gonzalez was offered by New Mexico Highlands on Tuesday while Thompson holds close to a half dozen offers, including Eastern New Mexico and NM Highlands.   “Wyatt does a good job spreading the football around,” Gonzalez said. “He definitely allows a lot of guys to have an impact. We have three or four guys who can do good things when they have the ball in their hands. Camon has been our featured running back all season. He and [player_tooltip player_id='615536' first='Alec' last='Holguin'] are as good a 1-2 punch in the backfield as anybody. Thompson is a game changer with everything he does on offense, defense and special teams. He's a generational player.”   Lovington's offensive line is led by junior [player_tooltip player_id='613058' first='Valente' last='Herrera'], who has 38 pancake blocks this season.     The Portales defense has been potent for most of the season with seven shutouts, two against Bernalillo in the next-to-last regular season game and again in the quarterfinals.   “The heart and soul of our team is the defense,” Ramirez said. “Our offense responds to how well our defense plays. We've had short fields and a lot of three and outs, which means we get the ball back quickly. The defense is what gets us going.   Junior linebacker [player_tooltip player_id='613053' first='Manny' last='Chavez'] has 140 tackles on the season, pushing his career total to 374. And he still has 1 more season left. Behind him, Portales benefits from numerous defenders contributing to the effort.   “It's been a total team defensive effort,” Ramirez said. “That's what we pride ourselves on. We play with tenacity and with relentless attack.”   Lovington lost its first two games of the season but has won nine of 10 games since then. Those two losses came to Roswell (No. 1 seed in 5A playoffs) in the opener and Seminole (TX), which has impressively reached the third round of the hypercompetitive playoffs in Texas. Their non-district schedule also included Artesia and Hobbs.   Gonzalez credits Lovington's 26-23 road victory at 6A Hobbs for catapulting the Wildcats to the season they've enjoyed.   “As tough as our non-district schedule was, it definitely helped us prepare to put us in the position we're in right now,” Gonzalez said. “It helped us play at a high level and play for a state championship. Now we have an opportunity to get the blue trophy.”   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/lvtwildcatsfb/status/1726045884889043246?s=20 </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/zane_mayberry/status/1727023018571108742?s=20 </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/lvtwildcatsfb/status/1727518791108620736?s=20 </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/lvtwildcatsfb/status/1727053865693172079?s=20 </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/pchristy11/status/1726659301568372921?s=20 </div></figure>

Class 4A State Championship Game Preview