NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – The postseason is in full swing as large classifications began the quarterfinals on Friday night, while smaller schools got ready to close out the postseason. Here is a look at some of the scores and highlights from week 11 of Friday Night Football.
6A
Life of an Athlete Game of the Week
In a battle of four vs five, Sandia hosted Rio Rancho at Milne Stadium. The Rams entered the night following following their first round victory, as they were dominate in all phases of the game. In the end, Rio Rancho left with a
“Yeah, I think our kids came out ready,” said Rio Rancho head coach Nate Pino. “You know, we talked about coming out and we know who we are as a football team, and we know we are a damn good football team. They are just earning the respect that they deserve. They have done a good job.”
#8 Hobbs: 0 vs #1 Cleveland: 45
#11 Farmington: 6 vs #3 La Cueva: 45
#7 Las Cruces: 38 vs #2 Centennial: 34
5A
#9 Mayfield: 0 vs #1 Roswell: 50
#6 Valley: 6 vs #3 Piedra Vista: 30
The defending champions of class 5A, Artesia, will host Los Alamos on Saturday. Bulldogs head coach Jeremy Maupin joined the show to discuss the possibility of running it back.
“We had two really good weeks of practice after the finish of district, and when you are in the playoffs, I think experience is really important,” said Maupin. “You know, we have a lot of our key guys back from last year and even some that played the year before. You know, this senior class is kind of my first class that I have had all the way through and I think they are excited about the opportunity to potentially go back-to-back and I think they are putting everything they are having into it to try and make that goal happen.”
New Mexico High School Football History presented by Isham Dental
Over the last few years, Bernalillo high school has had a rich tradition when it comes to tackling. Michael Ash set the single game record last year with 27, Ayden Madrid set the single season record in 2019 with 172, and coming into this week Mason McChriston entered the week leading the state with 129.
4A
#5 Bernalillo: 0 vs #4 Portales: 17
3A
#5 NMMI: 35 VS #4 West Las Vegas: 8
The Socorro Warriors are back in the postseason for a 6th consecutive year under head coach Damien Ocampo. He joined the show to discuss what it takes to go on a postseason run and what stands out about this year’s squad.
“It seems like every week we have to really compete and we’re getting everybody’s best,” he said. “And we’re so young, I’ve never been this young before. And I’ve never been this banged up before. We’re limping into the quarterfinals, but we have great kids with tons of heart. And young kids. I’ve never coaches this many young kids before. So I’ll tell you what. It’s pretty fun but I’ve got more grey hairs as you can see.”
2A
All class 2A games will be played on Saturday.
8-Man
The class 8-Man championship will take place on Saturday between top ranked Melrose and seven seeded Clayton. The Yellowjackets have been on quite the run in the postseason and head coach Josh Garcia along with senior Jonoven Hidalgo joined the show to discuss the craziness of the last few weeks.
“Actually, coming into the games we were pretty confident,” Garcia said. “I mean, we had talked about that we were coming in as the number seven seed, but we didn’t feel like we were the underdogs. We felt like we were the better team and we were more physical and we were ready to play.”
6-Man
The class 6-Man championship will take place on Saturday between two-time defending champion Gateway Christian against Roy.
