Today I’m breaking out a new feature for me on this beat, something I’ve been wanting to initiate for a couple of years now.
Each Monday, I’ll sit down and reflect on the previous weekend’s action, and I’ve broken this down into four subheads: Touchdown, Chunk Play, First Down and Behind the Chains.
Touchdown
CLEVELAND: The Storm opened their quest for a third consecutive Class 6A state championship with a resounding, four-touchdown victory over what I contend will eventually prove to be a strong Centennial outfit.
This 34-7 win was the ultimate tone setter, and affirms Cleveland as the No. 1 team in 6A. It wasn’t just that new QB Michael Denison came out and played so well in his debut, a five-touchdown effort.
It was a Cleveland defense that cast a net that kept Hawks quarterback Ruiz Laborin and (especially) running back Dailen Ramirez – a meager 49 yards on 13 carries – in check. The Laborin/Ramirez duo is one of the most experienced and dangerous duos returning in all of 6A, and Cleveland held this offense under 300 total yards.
An impressive Week 1 statement, indeed.
As a side note, the team from Colorado coming into Rio Rancho to play Cleveland this week, Chatfield, faced Colorado’s No. 1-overall ranked team, Cherry Creek, last week, and was more than competitive in a 28-15 loss. For whatever that is worth. At the very least, this upcoming matchup will stoke the always-popular New Mexico vs. everyone else in the region argument when this one is over.
OH, THOSE QUARTERBACKS!: What an opening weekend it was for a handful of signal callers. Some of them, like Denison and Andruw Fuentez of Roswell, are varsity newcomers who didn’t play like rookies. Others, like Junior Medrano of Hobbs and Monty Melendez of La Cueva, are seasoned veterans.
There were almost too many stellar performances to document in Week 1. For example, Medrano and Fuentez combined for over 700 passing yards in that wild 64-60 Roswell win the other night. Fuentez had 473 on his own.
Melendez, Denison, William Braun of Albuquerque Academy, CJ Granados of Dexter (who had only 14 TD passes all of last year) and Isaiah Carpenter of St. Pius all threw for five touchdown passes. (Fuentez threw for seven.) Jude Herrera of Volcano Vista had six TD tosses. Lukas Cisneros of Questa threw six touchdown passes, and he completed only eight passes the whole game against Cloudcroft.
There were two plus-performance sophomore debuts of note. Wyatt Babcock was solid for two-time defending state champion Bloomfield, throwing for 271 yards and three scores in a 45-36 win over Clovis. The Bobcats’ overall QB play over the last handful of years has been just about peerless in 4A. Miguel Perez of Lovington accounted for over 300 pass and rush yards for the Wildcats in a close victory over Goddard.
At the 8-Man level, senior Luke Boatman of Menaul rushed for 393 yards and five scores, and passed for 119 yards in a loss to Mesilla Valley.
Chunk play
THE CARLSBAD DEFENSE: I couldn’t quite bring myself to elevate Carlsbad’s 20-13 win at Artesia into our “Touchdown” category, if only because Artesia took the field Friday night with 21 new starters.
Not only that, the Cavemen figure to be a player in the 6A playoff picture, and this is a storied rivalry game.
More than anything else, it was a Carlsbad defensive unit, led by UCLA commit linebacker Colton McKibben (a team-leading eight tackles), that shined brightest as it limited Artesia to 191 total yards. That’s fantastic work.
LA CUEVA: It’s super early, so rankings this time of year are mostly fun for discussion purposes only. But the Bears staked a claim as New Mexico’s second-best team after their 59-21 win over Eldorado. Who knows, maybe this is the state’s best group. We’ll know on Sept. 18 when La Cueva and Cleveland share a field.
We’ll probably have some more clarity on La Cueva after its road trip to Colorado this week to face Palmer Ridge. Palmer Ridge is ranked No. 24 overall in Colorado. It is located just north of Colorado Springs.
First down
TYING THE RECORD: It’s no secret that St. Michael’s is the best football program in Santa Fe, even with the city’s two public schools – Santa Fe and Capital – being much larger.
But the Horsemen merit a quick shout-out after winning their 34th straight, 49-6 over Capital. Santa Fe is up next, on Friday. Only one team in the state’s history, Animas, has won more consecutive games (69, from 1985-90) than St. Michael’s.
DEMONIZE: One of the scores that flew under the radar in Week 1 was Dexter’s 53-7 rout of Hozho Academy, and Hozho was a 2A semifinalist last November.
The Demons, now a 2A member, are hugely incentivized – as much as any team in New Mexico – to win a blue trophy after falling in the 3A finals each of the last two seasons.
GET CARTER: One of the performances I didn’t get to the other night when Sandia defeated Cibola was this one: senior end Carter Strauss was a complete menace, registering 4½ sacks of Cibola QB Terry Maes. A wrecking ball.
Behind the chains
LAS CRUCES: This might seem a bit harsh, but for the moment, it’s where the Bulldawgs are.
Look, the Bulldawgs lost three spectacular offensive talents to graduation. Losing any one of them in a single offseason would have been difficult to overcome, let alone all three at once.
It was a tough opener for the Bulldawgs, who gained just 233 yards against Rio Rancho in a 14-7 loss. A new starting quarterback, junior Aldo Gallegos, rushed for almost twice as many yards (107) as he passed for (54) for Las Cruces.
ARTESIA: The Bulldogs are so new across the board, but still, it was a bit of sticker shock to see how much they struggled in Week 1 to move the ball on the Cavemen.
This undoubtedly will improve as the season goes on, but Artesia is facing an 0-2 start unless it can solve Hobbs on Friday. Lucas Atkins, in his first varsity QB start for Artesia, was 18-of-34 for 143 yards.
James Yodice covers prep sports for the Journal. You can reach him at jyodice@abqjournal.com or via X at @JamesDYodice.
