November Madness: Class 6A/5A Semifinals Preview

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>November Madness enters the third weekend in Classes 6A-2A with semifinal action at various stadiums throughout the state. Here is the preview of the semifinal games in Class 6A and 5A: &nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>CLASS 6A</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Cleveland (3) at Centennial (2), Fri. 11/22 (7 p.m.)</strong>: One statistic tells us why Centennial pulled out a 35-28 road victory over Cleveland in Week 1 – the Hawks rushed for 202 yards on 40 carries, including 109 yards on 20 carries by quarterback <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='613746' first='Zaiden' last='Davis']</strong>. It jumpstarted a season long trend for the Hawks on their way to an unbeaten 11-0 record. They've run the ball 73 percent of the time (382 rushes, 142 passes) and are averaging 9.2 yards per rush. Davis has already rushed for over 1,500 yards and 26 TD while senior <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='837060' first='Rudy' last='Rios']</strong> is close to joining him in the 1,000-yard club. Together, Davis and Rios have rushed for 42 TDs.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Cleveland's defensive game plan is simple if they want to reverse the outcome from Week 1: stop the run, or at least contain it. Centennial's 5.1 yards per attempt in the opener was its lowest of the season. The Hawks have averaged over 8.0 yards per carry in NINE games this season. But Centennial is happy to throw the ball too, especially to WR <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='280925' first='Jordan' last='Lucas']</strong>, who has 42 receptions for 660 yards and 5 TD. Cleveland's offense is more balanced in terms of play-calling (234 runs, 180 passes). Junior QB <strong>Jordan Hatch</strong> has thrown for nearly 2,000 yards and he's supported by a solid RB trio in <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1595801' first='Isaiah' last='Yannis']</strong>, <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='611120' first='Juan' last='Munoz']</strong> and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1600936' first='Samuel' last='Bustillos']</strong>. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>La Cueva (1) at Las Cruces (5), Sat. 11/23 (1 p.m.)</strong>: The NMAA's ‘Who Owes Who' rule is why top-seeded and unbeaten La Cueva is headed to Field of Dreams to square with the Bulldawgs on Saturday afternoon. The Bears hosted Las Cruces in the 6A semifinals last year, so now they're headed south on I-25. La Cueva will pack their bags with one of the most prolific offenses in the state led by QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='611098' first='Cameron' last='Dyer']</strong>, RB <strong>Cheeto Lumbrera</strong>, WR <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='853013' first='Tanner' last='Montano']</strong> and a superb offensive line highlighted by Minnesota-bound <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1118241' first='Mark' last='Handy']</strong>. The Bears offense was firing on all cylinders in last week's mercy-rule win over Hobbs. And that <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='611083' first='Mason' last='Posa']</strong>-led defense is pretty good, too, on all three levels.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>If there's an offense talented enough to keep pace with Las Cueva, it could be Las Cruces. Everything starts with the steady hand of QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='853029' first='Gunnar' last='Guardiola']</strong>, who has thrown for over 2,000 yards and rarely makes mistakes as seen by his 5 interceptions in 12 games. RB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1137388' first='Daniel' last='Amaro']</strong> (1,200+ rushing yards) and two receivers with 40+ receptions – <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='615455' first='Nate' last='Libby']</strong> and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1142363' first='Francisco' last='Winnikoff']</strong> – are all highly productive weapons at his disposal. The story of last week's 17-3 quarterfinals win over Volcano Vista was the Bulldawgs defense, which held the Hawks to 100 total yards of offense. They stopped the ground game cold as Volcano Vista mustered just 8 yards rushing on 17 carries. The Bulldawgs must have that same level of performance against La Cueva. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<strong>&nbsp;</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>CLASS 5A</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Gadsden (4) at Roswell (1), Sat., 11/23 (1 p.m.): </strong>The revival of the Gadsden program took another step with the Panthers advancing to the 5A semifinals. However, they return to the place (Wool Bowl) where they lost, 48-7, to the Coyotes seven weeks ago. In that game, Gadsden showed they could run the ball against the tough Roswell defensive front seven (167 yards on 30 carries) but they struggled to throw it (111 yards; 9.3 yards per completion) and made too many unforced errors. A botched punt resulted in a scoop-and-score by Roswell's special teams, an interception gave the Coyotes great field position that led to a rushing TD, a Pick-6 gave Roswell seven more points and finally Roswell returned a punt for a TD. Thus, Gadsden has plenty of areas to improve based on their last meeting with Roswell. Everything starts with limiting mistakes.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Roswell has been nearly unstoppable during a seven-game winning streak following the Week 3 road loss at Lovington. The Coyotes won impressively over Artesia at the Bulldog Bowl – dealing their chief rival a rare home loss – and nipped Mayfield by a point (28-27) at Field of Dreams. Five of the victories have been lopsided, including the Oct. 4 win over Gadsden. Senior QB <strong>Jacob Palomino</strong> and two-way standout <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1118273' first='Xai' last='Carrasco']</strong> lead the Coyotes high-scoring offense. Defensively, the Coyotes haven't given up a point in two games, blanking crosstown rival Goddard in the regular season finale (27-0) and shutting out Highland (42-0) in the quarterfinals. Roswell has one of the best defensive lines in the state (<strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1259013' first='Aidan' last='Rutley']</strong> was offered by NM Highlands on Tuesday) and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='836944' first='Keegan' last='Nichols']</strong> is a top-notch LB. They'll strive to limit the yardage by Gadsden RB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='615673' first='Alfredo' last='Andrade']</strong>. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<strong>&nbsp;</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Mayfield (6) at Artesia (2), Sat., 11/23 (1 p.m.)</strong>:Both5A semifinal games involve teams solely from District 5A-2, meaning they're regular season rematches. These two teams met three weeks ago at Field of Dreams with Artesia pulling out a 42-28 victory. But the game was closer than the final score indicates. The game was actually tied in the fourth quarter at 28-28 when Artesia QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1432984' first='Izac' last='Cazares']</strong> led the Bulldogs on a 42-yard drive culminated by his 14-yard TD run for the eventual game-winning points. After the Artesia defense came up with a stop, Cazares put his stamp on the win by scoring on a 48-yard TD run in the final minute. Cazares has plenty of weapons around him, starting with RB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1118283' first='Frankie' last='Galindo']</strong> and WR <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1118257' first='Ethan' last='Conn']</strong>, who's also an outstanding kick returner. &nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Mayfield defense struggled to keep Cazares contained as he threw for 156 yards and 2 TD while rushing for 197 yards on 14 carries for 353 total yards. Clearly, Mayfield must adjust its defensive game plan to keep Cazares from beating them as he did earlier this month. Mayfield is coming off an impressive 21-7 road win at Deming. If the Trojans can stop the Wildcats' offense, can they do the same thing to Artesia? Perhaps. The Trojans have surrendered only 14 points in their first two playoff games, so the defense is playing very well. QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1257289' first='Luke' last='Linnan']</strong> has enjoyed an outstanding season along with RB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1266489' first='Anthony' last='Nevarez']</strong>. Senior <strong>Justin Madrid</strong> had a big game against Belen in the first round.   </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:html --> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="it" dir="ltr">5A Semi-finals <a href="https://t.co/N7afbW8eUL">pic.twitter.com/N7afbW8eUL</a></p>&mdash; BulldogFootball 🏈🏆x32 (@artesiafootball) <a href="https://twitter.com/artesiafootball/status/1858502537860854187?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2024</a></blockquote> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:html --> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Gadsden will meet Roswell at the Wool Bowl in Roswell on Saturday, Nov. 23rd at 1 PM in the 5A Semifinal matchup. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HailGadsden?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HailGadsden</a> <a href="https://t.co/NSPhs4PNLK">pic.twitter.com/NSPhs4PNLK</a></p>&mdash; Gadsden Football (@GadsdenPanthers) <a href="https://twitter.com/GadsdenPanthers/status/1858269650678624674?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 17, 2024</a></blockquote> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:html --> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bought our seniors one more game, time to make the most of it and do it again next week.<a href="https://twitter.com/GadsdenPanthers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GadsdenPanthers</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/CoachFacio?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CoachFacio</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MVScouting?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MVScouting</a> <a href="https://t.co/ZZ2rloE6mp">pic.twitter.com/ZZ2rloE6mp</a></p>&mdash; [player_tooltip player_id='1119551' first='Javier' last='Filerio'] (@JavierFilerio70) <a href="https://twitter.com/JavierFilerio70/status/1858206103332700338?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 17, 2024</a></blockquote> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>    </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>      </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->