Final Four: Cleveland prepares for Hobbs in Saturday's state semifinal

RIO RANCHO - It’s that time of year again at Lightning Bolt Stadium: leaves are falling from the trees, there's a crisp in the air and the Storm are one win away from a state championship appearance.

It's a familiar sight for the electric blue crew at Cleveland High School, on the verge of a seventh straight title game appearance and ninth overall. To continue their quest for a seventh program title and successfully go back-to-back, they will have to punch their ticket against the Hobbs Eagles.

Hobbs enters the Saturday matchup with a 9-2 record, finishing second in 3-6A behind the undefeated Las Cruces Bulldawgs.

The people of the City of Vision may not know a lot about this Hobbs team, with the school located over five hours away in the southeast of the state.

To help set the scene, the Observer reached out to Hobbs News-Sun’s Jason Farmer to catch Storm fans up to speed on everything Eagles:

The last four meetings (2023, 2021, 2017, and 2013) have all been in the quarterfinal round of the playoffs. The most recent meeting was a 45-0 loss in 2023.

“Hobbs does not have a good record, but this team has never played Cleveland,” Hobbs Head Coach Ken Stevens said. “Since this staff has been here, we have played (Cleveland) twice. In 2021, the first year we made the playoffs, we beat Eldorado at home and then went and played Cleveland there. That game was really competitive right up until halftime. … The last time we played them, we went up there and got absolutely throttled. They were just that much of a superior team to us that year. Then, compounding the mistakes we made, just made it worse.”

But times have changed, and the Eagles of 2025 are a different team, a more confident team.

“What I hope is going up there and having played them a couple of times, and familiarity with their physicality and speed and size, and knowing what we are up against, that experience will hopefully allow us to handle the magnitude of the game and who they are.”

Saturday’s game won’t be easy. The Storm enter the game with a 10-1 record and are seeded No. 2 in Class 6A. The Storm’s only loss was in Week 4 to the undefeated Class 6A No. 1 seed Las Cruces. In head-to-head meetings, the Eagles have never beaten Cleveland, and the games have never been close.

“It is going to be tough,” Stevens said. “They are not unbeatable by any means. What the kids need to understand that (Cleveland) is a beatable team, but in order to do that, we are going to have to play our best game. We are going to have to continue to protect the football on offense. We are going to have to continue to play good on defense. We are going to have to continue to be solid on special teams and play our best game.”

- Jason Farmer, Hobbs News-Sun

While history does not lean in Hobbs’ favor, this may be a team different from the rest. Stevens' 2025 squad has notched the school’s first semifinal appearance since 1981, already making some history on this playoff run.

But for this Cleveland team, it may not matter who walks off that visiting bus on Saturday afternoon. The Storm currently hold a margin of victory average of a whopping 37.5 points across their 10 wins, including this past week’s quarterfinal shutout of Volcano Vista High School, 42-0.

Cleveland quarterback Jordan Hatch is on his way to being in the Gatorade Player of the Year conversation, surpassing his touchdown total from last year with 33 TDs in 2025. His main targets, Jacob Maldonado and Evan Nanez, have both recorded over 500 yards receiving and eight or more touchdowns (Nanez leads the receiver room with 10 TDs).

The Storm can bring it on the ground as well, and they proved it against the Hawks in the quarterfinals. The running back trio of Bustillos, Troy Logan and Damian Rodriguez combined for three rushing touchdowns as Bustillos ran for 110 yards.

It can be easy for a team to get ahead of themselves with statistics like this, but Cleveland makes sure to keep a day-to-day mindset.

“We still got work to do, we know what we got to do,” Cleveland running back Samuel Bustillos said after their win over Volcano Vista. “Come out, have a good week, a good week of practice, and show up how we did tonight.”

While Cleveland’s offense is the eye candy of the box score week to week, the biggest matchup in this game may be how the Storm defense handles the Eagles. Hobbs has not been held under 30 points since mid-September, while Cleveland has now put together seven straight games of holding their opponent under 20 points.

The one outlier in the Storm’s season of dominance? A September loss to Las Cruces, who Cleveland has the chance of potentially meeting up with in the state final. The Bulldawgs will take on La Cueva in their semi-final matchup.

“Just keep rolling,” Bustillos said. “We know what we've got to do. We're expecting another title game. We’ve put in so much work, we can't wait (for the semifinal).”

Cleveland and Hobbs will fight for a 6A title game spot, Saturday at 1 pm at Lightning Bolt Stadium.