Yodice: Alamogordo gaining attention, St. Mike's with state's longest winning streak

It’s early, of course, and there are nine weekends ahead to hash out the pecking order in Class 6A football’s regular season.

Some of the heavyweights have started 2-0, like Cleveland and Las Cruces, as you’d expect. But this 2-0 list contains some other teams not necessarily ranked among New Mexico’s strongest — teams like Santa Fe, Albuquerque High, Piedra Vista to a lesser degree, and the Alamogordo Tigers.

Only one of those four, Piedra Vista at No. 9, was ranked in the first top-10 coaches poll of the season.

True, Alamo’s two wins have been against 5A programs, but Friday night, the Tigers registered their best win in years, taking down reigning 5A state champion Roswell.

The 27-13 victory is easily among the most surprising results from a 6A team so far this young season.

“A big win for us,” coach AJ Cisco said. He cited a 2022 victory over Las Cruces, although the Bulldawgs won only two games that year. He also mentioned a 2019 triumph against Artesia, when both were 5A programs and district rivals.

This win felt different. Roswell, ranked No. 2 in 5A, is not that far removed from a blue trophy season. Maybe Friday was a glitch in the Roswell matrix, but the Coyotes nevertheless remain formidable.

“We beat a top program in the entire state,” Cisco said.

The Tigers won only two games last fall, but three of their eight losses were extremely close, and there were a handful of coaches in 6A who said Alamogordo might be one of those under-the-radar outfits this year.

“We were really young last year,” Cisco said. “We try to have higher expectations.”

Alamo, which opened with a victory at Deming, a longtime nemesis, has benefited from the work of senior quarterback Nathanael Best, one of 6A’s most efficient dual-threat QBs; in fact, he’s a stronger runner than thrower, having gained nearly 1,150 rush yards as a junior. He took over as the starter in Week 3, against Albuquerque High. And he had multiple rushing scores Friday night on Roswell’s stout defense.

“He’s a definite threat,” Cisco said. “One of the best athletes we’ve had in Alamogordo since I’ve been here.”

It’s Albuquerque High who’s next on the Alamogordo schedule; the Tigers roll into Milne Stadium on Friday night. Asked early in the day on Saturday if the Tigers had anyone going to Milne to scout Albuquerque High, which was taking on Valley later in the afternoon, Cisco laughed a little.

Alamogordo would be scouting the Bulldogs, he said.

The name of the scout? Andrea Cisco. The coach’s wife.

She and the couple’s daughter were in the metro area for a youth softball tournament over the weekend, so she told her husband she’d go to Milne and do some recon. She coaches multiple sports at Alamogordo.

“She’s done this a long time,” Cisco said with a laugh.

After Albuquerque High, Alamogordo visits Piedra Vista in Week 4 on Sept. 12. Those two went two overtimes in Alamogordo last season.

But the point Cisco repeated was simple. Success, even into its District 3-6A schedule, which begins in Week 5, will nudge Alamogordo further, bit by bit, into the spotlight.

“If we play well,” Cisco said plainly, “people will notice.”

STREAKIN’: Just since the start of the season, three of the five undefeated state champions from 2024 have seen their winning streak end. Melrose has lost both its 8-Man games, albeit against out-of-state programs from Colorado.

Bloomfield’s streak in Class 4A, which was 13, ended with a loss Friday against Piedra Vista.

Texico’s 18-game unbeaten run in 2A was halted on opening night by Santa Rosa.

Logan, the 6-Man champ, has won 14 in a row. Which is the same number of games in a row that 6A Cleveland has won.

St. Michael’s, with 22 victories in a row, currently is riding New Mexico’s longest winning streak. As of Labor Day, it has been 23 months exactly since the Horsemen lost a game: Oct. 1, 2023, against West Las Vegas.

If St. Mike’s continues on this path, the Horsemen are primed to perhaps reach the top 5 on New Mexico’s all-time list very soon — if they get to 28 straight.

The longest winning streak this century is 29 by Santa Rosa from 2011-13.

For nostalgia buffs, 2025 marks the 40-year anniversary of the start of the state’s most enduring (and famous) streak, the 69 in a row won by Animas from 1985-90.

BACK TO BACK: Thinking on Artesia’s 2024 season, many of you will remember just how special an offensive weapon the Bulldogs had in Frankie Galindo, a player who scored 20 touchdowns total in the run/pass offense, was a 1,000-yard rusher and was quite active in the pass attack. He led Artesia with nearly 1,500 all-purpose yards. That’s over the course of 13 games.

Now consider the shooting star that is senior Bryce Parra.

Parra has absolutely exploded onto the scene for Class 5A’s top-ranked Bulldogs. He was deployed regularly as a junior, sure, more so in the air than on the ground. And he finished with a shade over 600 all-purpose yards.

But through just TWO games this season, Parra already has 320 rushing yards, putting him on pace for a 1,600-yard season (not counting playoffs), and has stockpiled 582 all-purpose yards with six touchdowns, including a kickoff return for a score that clinched a win on Friday against Hobbs.

“He is a stud,” Bulldogs coach Jeremy Maupin said.

If we’re going to chat about the most valuable players to their team, regardless of classification, that list must include Parra. And pretty near the top of that list, too.

OLLOWAY: St. Pius’ fantastic running back, junior Hershul Olloway Jr., who like Artesia’s Parra is easily one of the top five backs in the state, on Sunday went on social media and said that he had been extended a scholarship offer by New Mexico State.

Olloway was one of a small handful of Sartan standouts who were invited by the Aggies to attend their season opener Saturday night against Bryant.

Olloway in June gained offers from both New Mexico and UTEP. He rushed for 1,700-plus yards last season and is the current Class 4A 100-meter state champion.

In two games, Olloway has rushed for 278 yards (averaging over 10 yards a carry) in victories against West Mesa and Grants.