CLEVELAND STORMS CENTENNIAL
Cleveland cruises to win over Centennial
RIO RANCHO — And Centennial makes three.
Cleveland’s homecoming was a virtual walk in the artificially turfed park Friday night, as quarterback Angelo Trujillo made a triumphant return to the lineup with four touchdown passes as the Storm belted the visiting Hawks 42-12.
Cleveland (3-1) rolled up over 400 yards of total offense while limiting Centennial (1-3) to just 51 yards in the decisive first half in which the Storm raced out to a 28-0 lead.
“When our defense is able to do what they do, it bleeds into our offense,” said Cleveland running back Isaac Torres, who scored a pair of touchdowns, one receiving and one rushing. “Our defense was able to make up (sometimes) for the offense.”
Trujillo was 18-for-28 against Centennial, with 301 passing yards. He missed Cleveland’s huge road victory at Las Cruces last weekend after suffering a concussion the week prior against La Cueva. Justin Ainsworth subbed for Trujillo at QB and led the Storm to an important 28-21 victory.
Trujillo, by and large, was effective in his return, save for a couple of overthrows and one interception. There were huge gains to be found in the passing game all night.
“We identified some big-play opportunities early in the week, and they came through,” Storm coach Heath Ridenour said.
Cleveland scored on its first drive and basically never looked back.
Torres, who had over 200 rushing yards in the Las Cruces road victory, collected a swing pass from Trujillo and darted 48 yards along the near sideline for a 7-0 lead.
“The passing game has been developing well,” Trujillo said, “and I have awesome receivers.”
Torres added a 1-yard run for a 14-0 lead midway through the second quarter.
Centennial’s lone first-half drive that showed promise came with the Hawks trailing 14-0, and it backfired on them when Jake Reed of Cleveland picked up a fumble and went the other way 81 yards for a score with 3:22 to go before halftime.
“That was probably the play that broke the game open for us,” Ridenour said. “And we were able to keep on pushing forward from there.”
Just 15 seconds before halftime, and after being set up inside the Centennial 20 on a 51-yard completion to Justin Ainsworth, Trujillo four plays later tossed 6 yards on a fourth down to tight end Jacob Esquibel for a 28-0 cushion.
Ainsworth and Esquibel caught TD passes in the second half.
The Storm (3-1) also had beaten Oñate this season. Next Friday, Cleveland welcomes Artesia.