Rio Rancho goes to air to pummel Mayfield
Bruere’s six TD passes help propel Rams
RIO RANCHO — Baby brother Bruere is picking up where big brother left off.
The Rio Rancho High School offense is in Logan Bruere’s hands now, and the younger sibling of former RRHS standout QB Easton was magnificent Friday night, throwing for 331 yards and six touchdowns as Class 6A’s defending state champion rolled visiting Mayfield 42-21 in a 2017 season opener. “It was a lot of fun,” Bruere said. With his mammoth set of receivers, many of whom could easily be one-way players on the defensive line or at linebacker, Rio Rancho controlled this game through the air, as the Rams are wont to do.
Austin Hise, the veritable runt of the starting group at 5-feet-11 and 175 pounds, caught touchdown passes of 19, 12 and 6 yards.
Derrick Reyes, 6-4 and 230, caught a pair of scores (8 and 7 yards) and Bruere also got 6-5, 240-pound Joe Elmalhy involved, plus 6-2, 150-pound David Patterson.
“We’ve got some huge guys,” said Bruere, who was 27-for-37 passing. “And they run the ball so hard when they get it.”
The Rams had very little going on the ground, but with the success they were having vertically, there was no reason not to stick with that primarily. “Logan did phenomenal,” Hise said. Bruere threw for 198 yards and three scores in the first half, with two TD passes to Hise and one to Reyes.
“He had a wonderful night,” Rams coach David Howes said. “Obviously Logan did a good job of dishing it around, and sharing the football. More importantly, our line gave him time to throw.”
Meanwhile, the Rio Rancho defense, sparked by end Keshawn Banks — who unofficially had two sacks, three tackles for loss and one pass deflection in the first half, all while being very under the weather — limited Mayfield to minus-25 yards on the ground in the first two quarters. That was due to four sacks.
The Rams put the Trojans away with a masterful 15-play, 92-yard drive that consumed most of the third quarter. It ended with Bruere tossing 6 yards to Hise. Reyes’ second score moments later upped the lead to 35-0.
Mayfield running back Savion Russell helped the Trojans save face. He scored three TDs in the fourth quarter on runs of 5, 85 and 41 yards. He rushed for 175 yards in the final 12 minutes.
He was so efficient that Howes was forced to put his starters back into the game after the Trojans cut the deficit to 35-14 with 8:46 remaining. Rio Rancho now has a 14-game winning streak.
“I thought we performed very well,” said Hise. “We had some hiccups at the beginning, but we found our tempo and started moving the rock.”