Storm’s ‘D’ comes up big in shootout
Cleveland outlasts Rio Rancho to win state championship
RIO RANCHO — It figures, doesn’t it? After 88 points over the course of 2½ riveting hours at the windy and frigid Rio Rancho High School football stadium, it was a goal-line stand that ultimately clinched the Class 6A state championship for the Cleveland Storm.
Rio Rancho was a foot — and a 2-point conversion — from tying Cleveland in the game’s final 75 seconds. But, on a fourth down, the Storm’s David Murphy and
Colten Madison burst through to throw Rams running back
Zach Vigil for a 4-yard loss, and that clutch stop capped a strong stand and was the moment that secured a blue trophy for visiting Cleveland in a 48-40 victory on Saturday afternoon.
A crowd estimated at between 5,500 and 6,000 fans by Rio Rancho school and district officials was treated to a thriller that went down nearly to the final minute.
“I believed in our defense. I didn’t call timeout right there on purpose,” Cleveland coach Heath Ridenour said. “If I didn’t believe in them, I would have been calling timeouts to preserve as much time as possible (if we got the ball back), but I just had a feeling that our defense was gonna make a
had a feeling that our defense was gonna make a stop.”
The tackle of Vigil by Murphy, a junior safety, and Madison, a senior linebacker, was surprising, if only because of Rio Rancho’s 31 run plays in the second half, only one other play had gone for negative yardage. Cleveland’s defense had gotten virtually no backfield penetration the entire half.
But those two swallowed up Vigil when it mattered most.
“Me and Colten just knew where we had to be, so we got it done in the right gap,” said Murphy.
Rio Rancho had taken over, down eight after Dorian Lewis’ 4-yard touchdown run for No. 3 seed Cleveland (11-2) — his fifth of the day — with 5:40 remaining.
The Rams got a big 37-yard run by quarterback Isaiah Chavez to reach the Cleveland 15, and four plays later, fourth-seeded Rio Rancho (8-5) was at the 1 with under two minutes to go.
Vigil was stuffed on second down. Chavez was upended at the goal line on third down.
“When I seen Isaiah flip up … he’s a great player, but I knew right then and there, that dropped the momentum, and I knew my defense would make a big stop and that’s exactly what we did,” said Lewis, who closed his two-year career at Cleveland with a 35-carry, 217-yard performance. “It’s just who wanted it more. We wanted it more.”
Vigil was tackled with 1:07 on the clock. Cleveland then was able to run out the clock.
Lewis rushed for four scores, and caught a ball for a fifth — a play that proved to be one of the day’s most pivotal as he turned a swing pass from Storm QB Jeff Davison into a 24-yard touchdown with 4.3 seconds left before halftime. That score gave Cleveland a 27-20 halftime lead. “Huge,” Ridenour said.
Rio Rancho had the game’s first points, less than 90 seconds into the game on a 14-yard TD run by Chavez, who finished with 193 yards on 25 carries and four touchdowns.
Cleveland rattled off the next 21 points. An 11-yard TD pass to Tre Watson was bookended by scoring runs of 4 yards and 1 yard by Lewis.
Rio Rancho scored the next two touchdowns, a 17-yarder by Chavez and a 2-yarder by Elijah Smith to cut the deficit to 21-20. Then came Lewis’ late TD before the half.
Chavez helped the Rams tie the game at 27-all as Rio Rancho went quickly down the field with the third-quarter kickoff. But Cleveland answered right back with a 10-play scoring march, capped by Lewis going over from the 1 for a 34-27 lead.
But the Rams tied it again, at 34, late in the third quarter on a 6-yard TD run by Vigil, who also had a productive afternoon with 189 yards on 29 carries.
Davison made a terrific play to put Cleveland in front again moments later, being patient on the move before tossing 48 yards to Luke Wysong for a score 40 seconds into the fourth quarter.
Chavez’s 7-yard TD run on the ensuing drive cut the deficit to 41-40, but the PAT failed. Then came Lewis’ final TD, and then the heroics from the Cleveland defense.
“Our defense came through in the clutch and got us the one stop we needed,” Davison said.
It was, naturally, a bitter ending for Rio Rancho.
“We have to put it in,” Rams coach David Howes said of that last drive. “Kudos to them. They stopped Isaiah a couple of times, they stopped Zach … on fourth down, they did a great job of just knifing through us.”
Saturday marks Cleveland’s third championship, following unbeaten 2011 and 2015 seasons.