Prep football: Los Lunas, St. Pius, Volcano Vista win on final day of season

The final day of New Mexico’s 2025 prep football regular season didn’t yield any major surprises.

Los Lunas steamrolled Sandia to clinch second place in District 2-6A. St. Pius locked up the District 2-4A championship. St. Michael’s completed an undefeated season.

As day turned to evening, the state’s 11-Man teams turned to the New Mexico Activities Association as the NMAA planned to announce the playoff brackets late Saturday night.

At Wilson Stadium, backup quarterback Luke Cieremans threw for over 300 yards and five touchdowns as eighth-ranked Los Lunas easily dispatched longshot playoff hopeful Sandia 57-7 in a game that ended with four minutes to go due to the mercy rule.

The Tigers (7-3, 6-1 in 2-6A) and coach Greg Henington felt they had accomplished enough to earn a first-round home game in the 6A bracket next week.

“You never know how it’s gonna shake out, but we’re prepared for whatever comes, but it does feel that way, yes,” Henington said.

Los Lunas has been without its season starting QB, Kaiden Reese, for a couple of weeks, but the injured signal caller is, Henington said, expected to return for the Tigers’ playoff opener either next Friday or Saturday.

Cieremans has been outstanding in relief. On Saturday, he threw TD passes of 32 and 62 yards to Robert Pino, and also threw scoring passes of 36, 43 and 61 yards.

“We wanted to pass the ball a lot, because we’ve seen them loading the box a lot and we knew we could get behind them in the passing game,” Pino said.

Tailback Jagger Casillias scored on runs of 12 and 15 yards, and the Los Lunas defense also scored on Brad Mallory’s 75-yard fumble return.

“We’re excited about (the playoffs),” Henington said. “We feel like we’re really starting to come together, culture-wise and the way we play football. Man, we’re pumped up.”

Sandia closed 4-6 overall (4-3 in district) under first-year coach Tylon Wilder.

At Nusenda Community Stadium, second-ranked St. Pius (8-1, 5-1) clinched the 2-4A crown, outscoring No. 10-ranked Manzano 49-28.

Junior running back Hershul Olloway Jr., had 222 yards and four scores for the Sartans. Cayl Cox-Liggins caught six passes for 128 yards and a score, and quarterback Isaiah Carpenter threw for 277 yards on just 12 completions.

While St. Pius will have a first-round bye in the 4A playoffs, Manzano (5-5, 2-4) had to await its fate.

La Cueva, which locked up the District 2-6A title weeks ago, closed out the regular season with a convincing 51-3 win over Albuquerque High (5-5, 3-4) at Milne Stadium.

The Bears (8-2, 7-0) finished the season on an eight-game winning streak, and one of their scores against the Bulldogs was on defense as they distributed the ball to multiple carriers for touchdowns.

St. Michael’s, the No. 1-ranked team in Class 3A and the strong favorite to win a third straight blue trophy, dominated rival Robertson 40-6 as the Horsemen finished 10-0.

The last two games of the regular season for the metro area saw seventh-ranked Volcano Vista defeat rival Cibola 35-7 at Nusenda Community Stadium, and Valley double-up Rio Grande 28-14 at Milne.

For the Hawks (7-3, 3-2 in 1-6A), D’Angelo Mitchell rushed for over 100 yards, and Kaleb Vander Wilt caught two touchdown passes against the Cougars (5-5, 1-4).

Valley placekicker William Bradford kicked four field goals to lead the Vikings (4-6, 4-3 in 1-5A). Michael Garcia caught a TD pass, and Josh Sanchez rushed for a score. Rio Grande went 0-10 this season.