A carnival ride for Cleveland, a nightmare for Farmington

RIO RANCHO — It was both homecoming night, and a welcome home for the Cleveland Storm.

The carnival type atmosphere outside Lightning Bolt Stadium on Friday night was no match for the entertainment Cleveland provided after kickoff.

Appearing on its own campus for the first time in over a month, No. 3-ranked Cleveland battered No. 9 Farmington in every possible way, needing only 19 offensive snaps to accomplish a remarkably one-sided 50-0 District 1-6A victory.

The game lasted less than an hour.

“That’s a good football team,” Storm coach Robert Garza said of Farmington, though he could have meant his own group, too. “Our guys are hungry, and we feel like we’ve got something to prove.”

The game ended at halftime by mercy rule. It was a league opener for both teams.

Cleveland (5-1) scored on its first play, its fifth play, its ninth play, its 11th and 12th plays, its 14th play and its 19th play, to the delight of a huge homecoming crowd. Cleveland hadn’t played at home since Aug. 30 following three road games and a bye week.

Quarterback Jordan Hatch was 11 of 13 and threw for five touchdowns and exactly 300 yards. He reached that mark with a 36-yard TD pass to Juan Muñoz with under two minutes to go in the second quarter.

“This is how you try to win games,” Hatch said. Among his touchdown passes was a 90-yarder to Jacob Maldonado, one play following a Farmington fumble as the Scorpions (3-3) were driving, down 36 points.

The football team hung around at halftime, even though the game was over, to watch the halftime festivities.

“The travel is good for us,” Hatch said, “but we love being home. Really fun.”

One of the members of the homecoming court was the senior running back Muñoz, who had a big night.

He took the first play 60 yards for a touchdown after collecting a short swing pass from Hatch. The play started right to the short side, but Muñoz eventually cut it back all the way to the other side of the field for the electrifying score.

“I see everybody running towards me, I speed up past the first line, get to the secondary, I break one tackle, get behind my blocker, and just bounced it back,” he said matter-of-factly.

It was 36-0 in the first quarter.

Maldonado caught two TDs in the first quarter, Muñoz also added a 7-yard scoring run, and tailback Isaiah Yannis scored from 11 yards out.

Hatch threw TD passes to Lyles (5 yards) and Muñoz (36 yards) to finish the scoring.

“It’s a tough state right now,” Garza said. “We want to be the best team at the end, so we’re doing what we can to get there.”

Said Hatch: “We know how last year went. We made it to the state championship and we fell short, and that’s what all teams are going for.”

Cleveland faces Cibola next week. The Storm have won five in a row.

“We’ve been playing like a unit,” Muñoz said. “After that first loss to Centennial, we had to find an identity, we had to see who we are.”