What we learned after five of state's top 6A squads fall in wild weekend of prep football

Class 6A football needed a weekend like this, to be candid.

No fewer than four of the division’s top six (and half of the top 10) teams fell in Week 3, which amounts to a good bit of upheaval.

But, a little anarchy is healthy. It breathes some air into the whole chase. More of it would be even better.

Only No. 3 Volcano Vista and No. 4 Centennial (going by the coaches’ poll) emerged unscathed this week.

The other four — No. 1 Cleveland, No. 2 La Cueva, No. 5 Rio Rancho and No. 6 Farmington — were toppled.

Farmington’s loss, to seventh-ranked Los Lunas, was an upset by the poll, but it’s minor. The Tigers’ 40-22 victory probably confirmed that they should have been the higher-ranked team to begin with. How much might Los Lunas jump in the polls next week? This win by the Tigers was, to me, the most impressive by any team in the larger divisions this weekend. (I see you, Santa Rosa.)

Farmington has a key road game coming up in a few weeks against Rio Rancho right before district.

As for the Rams, their four-touchdown loss to El Paso Eastlake isn’t going to stain them a whole lot. That’s not a bad loss, despite the 35-7 score. Rio Rancho does, however, have a couple of intriguing home games on the immediate horizon, against Hobbs and Farmington on consecutive weeks.

La Cueva’s 35-28 setback on Saturday at Centennial isn’t going to cause long-term damage, either. Look, the Hawks were the better team on Saturday, although the Bears played noticeably better, and with more energy, in the second half and nearly gave themselves a chance to erase what had been a 21-point deficit in the third quarter.

To say the least, it was a tumultuous week for La Cueva, which forfeited a previous win to Rio Rancho at the start of the week. Now the Bears are 0-3, with Volcano Vista and Los Lunas on deck the next two weeks.

“We’re so close to being where we need to be,” La Cueva coach Brandon Back said Saturday in Las Cruces.

The forfeit was not a pleasant development for the Bears, but let’s not attach too much significance here … it was only one game. Had this occurred at the end of the regular season, it would have been catastrophic.

As it is, La Cueva still has a chance to be a top-four seed by the end of October. (Side note: La Cueva’s outstanding junior linebacker, Mason Posa, was dinged up pretty badly Saturday, and limped slowly off the Field of Dreams with a big ice pack on his right leg).

No. 1 Cleveland’s 28-27 overtime loss on Friday to Amarillo High comes with an asterisk. Sophomore quarterback Jordan Hatch didn’t play after being hurt in the second half the previous week against La Cueva. It made for a difficult situation for Cleveland, and the Storm’s schedule over the next several weeks — Las Cruces, Artesia, Frenship, Texas — is stout.

Let us also remember, Cleveland could have won Friday night had Amarillo not stopped them on a 2-point conversion in overtime.

As it stands today, Volcano Vista, Los Lunas and Sandia are 6A’s last three unbeaten teams. (The Matadors face Volcano Vista week after next.)

Plenty more twists and turns among 6A’s powers are sure to come.

ATRISCO-ELDORADO P.S.: Couldn’t get away today without a couple of final thoughts on Thursday night’s 70-64 win by the Jaguars over the Eagles.

It’s no coincidence that the three highest-scoring 11-Man football games in the state’s history have all come in the last 11 months. This is the way prep football is trending. Same as the college game. Defenses (more often than not) appear to have no chance against a skilled, spread, tempo offense.

But mostly, I must take this moment to salute the two quarterbacks in that game.

Brandon Olivas of Eldorado threw for 477 yards and eight touchdowns. That TD total is tied for the second-highest in a single game. Kid deserves boffo praise, and it must leave a sour taste to have posted those kind of sick numbers in a game his team didn’t even win.

But my largest kudo is reserved for Atrisco Heritage QB Latavious Morris. Anyone who lives in Albuquerque and follows prep sports knows this: Latavious is one of the city’s elite athletes.

But for him to come out and play quarterback — by his own admission, for the first time in his life (!!) — and throw for 482 yards and six scores, while also rushing for a buck-80 and an electrifying 80-yard TD run, and show the kind of poise he did as a QB newcomer, that merits a special mention.

When I left Jags coach Howard Knezevich on Thursday night, one of the last things he said —after I asked him how this changes his quarterback situation — was that he needs to mull this over the weekend.

Knezevich has mulled. He said Saturday that Morris will start next week against Manzano (though Atrisco might end up playing three QBs in that game). Whether this is short or long term with Morris as the starter, this is a potentially exciting development. He immediately joins the likes of West Mesa’s Elijah Brody and Centennial’s Daniel Hernandez as one of the top dual-threat QBs in 6A.

OUT THE DOOR: By the way, what are the odds we’d get both the lowest-scoring game of the regular season (Robertson 3, Cobre 0 in Week 2) and the highest-scoring game (AHA-Eldorado; I’ll wager this one will stand) on back-to-back weeks?

Unpredictability is the greatest sports drug of all.