Prep football playoff preview: First round begins Friday

One thing all of New Mexico’s best high school football teams have in common is this:

None of them are playing this weekend.

The 5-12 seeds in each of the five 11-Man playoff brackets get things started, with first-round games around the state on Friday and Saturday.

CLASS 6A: Two of the four first-round games are in Albuquerque on Friday night and both are regular-season rematches, with No. 7 Volcano Vista taking on No. 7 Cibola at Nusenda Community Stadium, and fifth-seeded La Cueva facing No. 12 Eldorado at Wilson Stadium.

The Bears beat the Eagles 26-7 in district play about a month ago.

“La Cueva is probably playing their best football right now,” Eldorado coach Charlie Dotson said. “They’re playing better than they did against us.”

Turnovers were an issue for the Eagles in the first meeting, Dotson said, and Eldorado has a largely young roster. “We’ve definitely got our hands full,” he said. Eldorado likely earned the final spot in the field when Alamogordo was beaten in Week 11 by Clovis.

Volcano Vista and Cibola just met last week, with the Hawks rolling 35-7. Spirit Penn-Cook returned at quarterback for the Hawks after missing nearly the entire regular season following a Week 1 injury against La Cueva.

One plus for Cibola is head coach David Howes will be on the sideline; he missed last week’s game after being ejected the previous week against Piedra Vista.

“We’ve got to be better on offense,” Howes said. “We’ve got to move the chains and do what we’ve done. … They bullied us a little bit and we have to be tougher.”

Howes said he fully anticipates this second meeting with Volcano Vista to be “a whole lot closer. This is an important do-over for our guys.”

Cibola’s defense was not the issue last week, per se, as it largely kept the Hawks in check, Howes said.

Piedra Vista and Los Lunas are meeting in the first round in Los Lunas for the second straight year. The Tigers blocked a late field goal a year ago to preserve a 28-27 win and get them into the quarterfinals.

“I see a team that’s a lot like us,” Panthers coach Jared Howell said of Los Lunas.

Piedra Vista is preparing for the possibility of two quarterbacks on Friday night. Tigers coach Greg Henington said he expects the season starter, Kaiden Reese, who has been injured, to return, and he’s a big, dangerous running QB. Luke Cieremans has been tremendous starting of late for Los Lunas, and is a more viable passing threat.

“You have to be ready for both of them,” said Howell, who is also expecting the Tigers’ physical defense to come after the Panthers.

No. 11 Carlsbad is at No. 6 Rio Rancho on Saturday afternoon, and there is true intrigue in this matchup, since Rams veteran starting QB Micah Takahashi, who left last week’s District 1-6A championship game against Cleveland with an injury, is a “game-time decision” to play Saturday, Rio Rancho coach Nate Pino said. Eighth-grader Crew Victor was the replacement against the Storm.

CLASS 5A: Last year, it was Goddard. This year, it is Mayfield as 5A’s 2-8 playoff entry.

The ninth-seeded Trojans are at Milne Stadium on Friday night to play No. 8 Highland as the first round gets underway.

“We’ve made that clear to the boys: At the end of the day, playoffs are playoffs and records don’t mean anything,” Hornets coach Philip Lovato said. “They’re a good, quality team, and they’re gonna be a formidable opponent.”

Highland has one of 5A’s underrated players in running back Jose Tapia, who when healthy has been putting up big rush numbers in the Hornets’ run-heavy attack. Lovato said Highland’s O-line is the unit that must dictate tone and physicality against Mayfield. The Hornets also feature one of 4A’s better scoring defenses.

In Belen, the Eagles, who have won four straight, earned a first-round home game by virtue of their runner-up showing in District 1-5A to Los Alamos. One of their regular-season home games was a 25-22 loss to 10th-seeded Valley, the same team that is visiting No. 7 Belen on Friday night.

“We have to cut down on our turnovers for sure,” Eagles coach Kevin Peña said. “That was what lost it for us. And we have to tackle a little better.”

Capital’s rare appearance in the postseason was due in large part to a game forfeited to them by Miyamura, which missed the playoffs. The Jaguars first-round assignment takes them to Anthony to face No. 6 Gadsden, a 5A semifinalist last season.

District rivals Deming and Goddard also meet; the fifth-seeded Rockets play a 1-9 Wildcats team that lost by only seven to Goddard in the regular season.

CLASS 4A: The first-round pairing of No. 8 Bernalillo and No. 9 Manzano is, on paper, one of the most confounding games this weekend, with two unpredictable teams.

The Spartans (6-4 including one forfeit win), who reached the state semifinals last November, scored 19 or fewer points in seven of their nine games, but won three of them, the first three. Bernalillo gets it done primarily with one of 4A’s top defenses.

“They’re a really aggressive team. They bring a lot of pressure from different areas,” Manzano coach Stephen Johnston said. “We have to be sound. We have to make sure we make good decisions with the football.”

There is another all-metro first-rounder, with No. 12 Valencia at No. 5 Albuquerque Academy. This will be the first playoff game of the weekend, as it begins at 1:30 p.m. Friday. This is another game, like Volcano-Cibola, in which the two participants just met a few days ago in Week 11. The Chargers, with one of 4A’s more diverse and talented offenses, won 34-0 last week. Valencia tailback Michael Storms III, one of 4A’s best, was limited to 54 yards last week and the Jaguars will need to get him loose to have a shot at an upset.

No. 6 Moriarty has one of 4A’s strongest ground games; the Pintos had three 100-yard rushers last week. Portales, the 11 seed, is 2-8, but remains a dangerous team, as three of those eight losses were by six or fewer points.

The one Saturday game in 4A is No. 10 Silver at No. 7 Grants. The Pirates would have been in the mix for a top-four seed had they not dropped two close games in succession to Taos and Moriarty by a combined three points.

CLASS 3A: It’s a bit unusual, optics-wise, to see Robertson on the 8 seed line, but the Cardinals lost a couple of key district games, and thus they fall to this spot, in the 8-9 matchup with Hatch Valley, a team that runs the ball well. Unbeaten St. Michael’s awaits the winner.

Ruidoso and West Las Vegas are meeting for the second consecutive playoffs in Las Vegas in the first round, and this is the Warriors’ second visit to WLV this year. The Dons have dropped five of six; they did beat Ruidoso 20-14 at home back in Week 3.

No. 11 seed Hot Springs, like Ruidoso, is making its second trip to the same city. The Tigers lost 14-12 at No. 6 seed Thoreau on Sept 12. The Hawks have won nine in a row since an 8-6 loss to Tucumcari to open the season.

Wingate visits No. 5 New Mexico Military Institute in the other first-round contest. Hope Christian from Albuquerque is the third seed and off this weekend.

CLASS 2A: It would take the eighth-seeded Jal Panthers less time to drive one way to San Diego or St. Louis than the combined round-trip miles they are having to cover for their first-round game Friday at No. 8 Navajo Prep.

The trip is so long (1,050 miles, approximately, round trip) that No. 9 Jal left town on Thursday afternoon, and their journey to Farmington to face the Eagles will involve not one but two overnight stays in Albuquerque.

“I think it’s maybe more of a hassle than anything,” Jal coach Brent Satterwhite said of the extra travel.

At the other end of the 2A travel spectrum is the first-rounder between Interstate 40 neighbors (such as it is in New Mexico) Santa Rosa and Tucumcari. The sixth-seeded Lions were ranked No. 1 for a large chunk of the season, but come into the playoffs limping, having dropped their final two games to Raton and Legacy Academy. Santa Rosa routed the Rattlers 49-0 three weeks ago in the regular season.

Raton earned a 5 seed for its strong finish, and a first-round home game versus Tularosa. No. 10 Estancia visits No. 7 Loving in the other first-round matchup; those two also opened the season against one another, with the Falcons recording a 42-0 victory. The winner faces Albuquerque’s Legacy Academy in next week’s quarterfinals.

8-MAN/6-MAN: Menaul, coming off an impressive first-round victory over Clayton, hits the road to face the top seed in 8-Man, the Fort Sumner/House co-op. The play on Friday night.

Mesilla Valley, Tatum and Melrose also are home in the 8-Man quarters.

The 6-Man postseason is already into the semifinals, with the top two seeds, Grady and Logan, at home on Friday.