No. 1 Cleveland beats Los Lunas in a rout

LOS LUNAS — Well, Cleveland got its defensive questions worked out for at least a week.

After Centennial hung 42 on the Storm last week, Cleveland coach Robert Garza was running a little hot, even after a game his football team won by two touchdowns.

The Storm defense kept Los Lunas out of the end zone entirely in Week 2, and the state’s top-ranked Class 6A team, on the road for the second straight week, rolled the 10th-ranked Tigers 49-3 on Friday night.

Evan Nañez, the hottest player in Class 6A this side of Las Cruces tailback Danny Amaro, scored three touchdowns for the second straight game, including an 80-yard touchdown run on a jet sweep on the first play from scrimmage just 11 seconds in.

Then a lightning delay.

But Cleveland, despite a blizzard of penalties — three of them wiped out touchdowns — was firmly in control throughout.

“I think our front seven came out hungry after last week,” Garza said. “It was a little bit of an awakening for those guys, so they came out and responded like we were hoping they would.”

Only a field goal near the end of the third quarter kept this from being a shutout.

The Storm took control with three touchdowns in the final six minutes of the second quarter, and two TDs within a span of 34 seconds in the final minute of the first half.

Nañez had a 13-yard run on a fourth-down play for a 14-0 lead, and quarterback Jordan Hatch scored on an 8-yard keeper for a 21-0 lead with 59 seconds showing.

Cornerback Karson Weddle, asked to play both ways on Friday (he’s also a key receiver), intercepted Los Lunas QB Kaiden Reese on the next play — the first of two picks for Weddle on the night — and authored a nice return to the Tigers 15.

Two plays later, Troy Logan scored on a 2-yard run and the gap was 27-0 at intermission.

Hatch threw a 27-yard TD pass to Weddle on a fourth-and-17 midway through the third quarter and the clock began running at 35-0.

Nañez added a third touchdown, a 12-yard run, in the fourth quarter. And 41 seconds later, Weddle was crossing the line at the end of a pick-6.

“Monday morning (after the Centennial game), we had a full emphasis on defense,” Weddle said. “All week, giving our best effort. Week 1 was not good enough.”

Nañez had the rare double-double. Unofficially, he rushed for 105 yards on just four attempts — and had a TD run taken away by a penalty — and he caught six passes for 133 yards.

“Evan is such a dawg,” Weddle said. “He is a dawg, straight up.”

As for those penalties, well, that was the only real debit on the Cleveland ledger. Three touchdowns were negated by penalty, although the last two (one of them a 60-yard throw from Hatch to Nañez) didn’t matter since the Storm scored a touchdown on that drive, anyway.

And the Los Lunas drive that led to points was helped along by three, 15-yard penalties on Cleveland.

Otherwise, the Storm clearly won both sides of the ball.

“We just had to be tougher in the trenches,” Garza said. “We kind of let some things affect us last week that shouldn’t have.”

Cleveland has its home opener Friday against Clovis.

“For sure, we definitely got better tonight,” said Nañez. “We’re just stacking days.”

Los Lunas (0-2) completed a brutal start to the season, having lost 27-8 to Roswell last week.

The Tigers in eight quarters have scored three field goals and a safety. They had a couple of looks at throws into the end zone Friday night, but the Coyotes and Storm didn’t really budge.

Los Lunas is at Farmington in Week 3.