First Round Sights and Sounds: Carlsbad-Rio Rancho (Recap/Video)

<p>This weekend featured 20 quarterfinal games across the state of New Mexico on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Here are is the recaps and extensive video from Saturday's Class 6A matchup between Carlsbad at Rio Rancho.</p>   <p><strong>Carlsbad 35, Rio Rancho 13</strong></p>   <p>An inauspicious start on the road didn't discourage the Carlsbad Cavemen as they dominated the final three quarters in a 35-13 victory over Rio Rancho in a Class 6A First-Round matchup at Rams Stadium.</p>   <p>Trailing 6-0 at the end of a first quarter in which they fumbled twice on offense and allowed a TD pass to the Rams, Carlsbad seized control of the game by scoring three touchdowns in the second quarter for a 21-6 lead at intermission. Carlsbad scored first in the second half and were never seriously threatened thereafter.</p>   <p>The Cavemen will travel to Hobbs for a Class 6A quarterfinal matchup on Friday night.</p>   <p>Carlsbad took the lead for good on RB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1605005' first='Brock' last='Wright']</strong>'s 10-yard TD run early in the second quarter. A pooch kick was then recovered by the Cavemen, giving them the ball back immediately. They took advantage as QB <strong>Marley Munoz</strong> ran 20+ yards on a QB keeper to make it 14-6 with 8:14 left in the second quarter.</p>   <p>The killer score may have come later in the second quarter when Carlsbad faced a third-and-18 deep in their own territory. Munoz hit <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1137066' first='Robert' last='Castaneda']</strong> on a short crossing route and he took it the distance for the TD. Instead of getting the ball back in fairly good field position, Rio Rancho found themselves trailing 21-6 midway through the second quarter.</p>   <p>Carlsbad continued to build on its lead early in the third quarter when the Cavemen stopped Rio Rancho on fourth down. Munoz rolled out and hit his receiver in the end zone for the TD to make it 28-6 going into the fourth quarter.</p>   <p>Castaneda scored on defense when he intercepted a pass and returned it for a 80-yard Pick-6 TD in the fourth quarter.        </p>   <p>Eighth-grader <strong>Crew Victor</strong> started at quarterback for Rio Rancho in place of [player_tooltip player_id='1604705' first='Micah' last='Takahashi'], who was still a bit tender after suffering an injury against Cleveland last week. Victor tossed a TD pass to WR [player_tooltip player_id='1266408' first='Parker' last='Miller'] to give the Rams an early 6-0 lead (2-point conversion failed). However, as the game went on, Victor's inexperience began to show and he threw a pair of interceptions in the fourth quarter, three overall. Nonetheless, his future is extremely bright.</p>   <p><strong>Video 1: First Quarter (Rio Rancho TD)</strong></p>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://youtu.be/2PjmHvwVYzI?si=b5IyqWx4LXEb3BtN </div></figure>   <p><strong>Video 2: First Quarter (Defensive Stop By Carlsbad)</strong></p>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://youtu.be/wb7P230rJ64?si=DL-EPHuaR4pqbqAF </div></figure>   <p>Video 3: Second Quarter (2 Carlsbad TDs)</p>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://youtu.be/_CVj8LfZVDA?si=Ft1R83BEGmsgawc1 </div></figure>   <p><strong>Video 4: Second Quarter</strong></p>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://youtu.be/dXl3o-O5lxA?si=6IfoSLCCpvRQ2ajt </div></figure>   <p><strong>Video 5: Third Quarter (Carlsbad TD)</strong></p>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://youtu.be/WFf6Dn6CPCk?si=uZNTzx69vPWZq9iU </div></figure>   <p><strong>Video 6: Late Third Quarter</strong></p>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://youtu.be/H3XvQHDun_4?si=mLwPKMXUKXe8OB8G </div></figure>

This weekend featured 20 quarterfinal games across the state of New Mexico on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Here are is the recaps and extensive video from Saturday's Class 6A matchup between Carlsbad at Rio Rancho.