Busiest playoff weekend gets underway Friday
Sandia-Cibola pairs offensive standouts
The high school football playoffs were already underway, but they blow up this weekend as New Mexico’s five, 11-Man classifications hop on board.
There are 23 games across the state’s seven divisions on Friday and Saturday, including six in the metro area on Friday afternoon and evening.
The top four seeds in Classes 3A-6A have byes until the quarterfinals next week.
CLASS 6A: No. 10 seed Sandia draws a tough first-round assignment when the Matadors face No. 7 Cibola Friday.
Matadors coach Chad Adcox said his offense, with featured running back Malachi Thymes — who gained almost 1,200 yards and rushed for 16 touchdowns in the regular season — needs to limit the touches of Cibola’s potent offense, sparked by junior quarterback Aden Chavez.
“We can’t get in a scoring battle with them,” Adcox said. “We have to run the ball and eat clock.”
Sandia has firepower of its own, with 6-foot-5 receiver Sean Johnson, multi-purpose Dalton Speis and Thymes possessing big-play capabilities.
The 6-foot-5 Chavez is big but elusive, and he’s got some a couple of excellent receiving targets in Nathan Lopez and Marcus Wilson.
Sandia comes in having won four straight.
“They’ve played better the second half, and they’ve really gotten it going,” Cibola coach Rod Williams said. “They’re clicking and they’re tough.”
Cibola’s 5-5 record is a reflection of what was easily the state’s most demanding schedule. But it has thickened the Cougars’ collective skin.
“It’s a thing where we feel confident because we’ve seen everything the state can throw at us,” Williams said. “Now it’s just time to go.”
Eldorado, the 9 seed, travels to Hobbs on Saturday. Hobbs quarterback Colton Graham is one of the better dual-threat QBs in 6A with over 2,300 combined passing and rushing yards. He will be a focal point, along with receiver Kaden Trevino, for Eldorado coach Charlie Dotson’s defense.
“He’s pretty smooth. We’ve rarely seen him touched,” Dotson said of Graham. “He gets the ball out of his hands immediately, like (Aidan Armenta of La Cueva). It’s hard to touch him.”
Eldorado hopes its ground game will travel well, with 6-foot-1 Aidan St. John having rushed for over 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns.
“We’ve got our hands full,” Dotson said.
Carlsbad and Volcano Vista will finally meet Friday night, two months after their early-September game was canceled due to a COVID issue at Volcano Vista.
Starting quarterback Josh Gerardo returned to the Hawks’ lineup last week and helped Volcano Vista over Cibola after missing a couple of games.
Clovis at 3-6 was the last team into the 6A field, and the 12thseeded Wildcats, who overcame a terrible start with an inexperienced group, visit No. 5 Las Cruces Saturday.
CLASS 5A: Belen’s regular season earned the seventh-seeded Eagles a first-round home game against No. 10 Deming on Friday. Belen’s three losses came to three of the top four seeds in the bracket: Farmington, Los Lunas and Artesia.
A young Deming team will only dress 21 players for this game, coach Greg Simmons said, and is led by senior running back Joey Reza.
“We don’t have any depth, but the kids go both ways and they go hard,” Simmons said. “It could be different, but it’s not.”
Two of Deming’s district rivals, Mayfield and Santa Teresa, are hosting first-round games. The Trojans are home to No. 12 Los Alamos, while the Desert Warriors are home to No 9 Piedra Vista.
Valley finished third in its district behind Los Lunas and Belen, and the Vikings face a difficult assignment at No. 6 Goddard.
CLASS 4A: Albuquerque Academy barely missed out on a firstround bye; the Chargers, a 5 seed, get district rival Bernalillo Friday at 3 p.m. in the weekend’s first, first-round game. This was a defensive slugfest a month ago when Academy won 14-7.
A potentially competitive game looms Friday when No. 10 Taos goes to No. 7 Valencia. The Tigers won five of six games entering the playoffs after starting 0-4, while the Jaguars are in the postseason for the first time in three years. Taos needs to rejuvenate its run game after being held to 34 yards at Moriarty last week. But the Valencia offense has struggled, too, having scored just 20 combined points in the final three regular season games.
Silver and Kirtland Central met in Week 1 in the Four Corners, and now the Broncos — senior tailback Zakk Thomas rushed for 1,453 yards and 17 TDs, although the Colts held him under 100 yards in the opener — return the visit.
Aztec, like Kirtland Central, faces a lengthy road trip as the Tigers visit Ruidoso on Saturday. Warriors running back Bracxton Hall averages over 120 yards rushing per game.
CLASS 3A: Hope Christian, the most recent (2019) state champion, is home at Wilson Stadium on Friday as a No. 8 seed, taking on ninth-seeded Navajo Prep which averages about 35 points a game.
“I think we’re really ready,” Hope coach Fernando Salinas said. “We’ve been tested all year long, and these kids have experienced playing the best.”
Cuba’s Rams have a rare home playoff appearance as the No. 7 seed vs. a dangerous 10 seed in Dexter.
No. 6 West Las Vegas, which opted not to play a short season in the spring, returned in the fall with a flourish and hosts Cobre.
The other first-round matchup is Thoreau traveling to Roswell to face New Mexico Military Institute.
CLASS 2A: Two of the four quarterfinals on Friday have an air of familiarity.
No. 3 Eunice and No. 6 Hagerman played an overtime game on Oct. 15, won 34-28 by the Cardinals, who rushed for nearly 300 yards. On that same day, No. 2 seed Tularosa blanked Lordsburg 27-0; the district rivals meet in Tularosa again. Four of the Wildcats’ six victories are by shutout, and they’ve only yielded 20 points total in those six games.
No. 1 seed and surging Jal hosts No. 8 Estancia, and in that top half of the bracket, it’s No. 4 Texico and No. 5 Capitan.
8-MAN/6-MAN: All three games this weekend are repeat pairings from the regular season, including unbeaten Gateway Christian against one-loss Ramah in the 6-Man state final, as the Mustangs look to avenge a two-touchdown loss from five weeks ago. This will be the first blue trophy handed out in football in almost two years.
In the 8-Man semifinals, Tatum thrashed Logan three weeks ago in the Longhorns’ lowest scoring game (34-8) of the regular season. Longtime rivals Melrose and Fort Sumner/House meet in the other semi; the Buffaloes won 58-50 in September.