"One vs Two": Cleveland football heads into major matchup vs Las Cruces

RIO RANCHO — On Friday night, Rio Rancho will become the high school football epicenter of New Mexico.

Along with a top-10 matchup between the Rio Rancho Rams and Centennial Hawks going on across town, the No. 1-ranked Cleveland Storm will face off against the No. 2 Las Cruces Bulldawgs in what could be one of the biggest games of the year.

“We've known that Las Cruces is a really good football team,” Cleveland Head Coach Robert Garza said. “We came into the season knowing that we were going to get to a point where we're going to have a battle in front of us. It’s one versus two, but it could really go either way with who's one and who's two; it's just an awesome opportunity for both teams to come out and showcase what they’ve got.”

A Cleveland victory will give Garza and his team their first 4-0 start to a season since 2021, when the Storm went 13-0 en route to a state title.

“I feel like we've improved each week, which is kind of what we're aiming for,” Garza said. “We started with a huge game against Centennial — man, those guys are good — it made us better right off the bat.”

Cleveland has stacked dominant wins early on, but as Garza mentioned, this is not a Bulldawgs team to mess around with. Las Cruces has already beaten two top-10 6A teams this year by double digits in both games (Volcano Vista 38-20, Rio Rancho 47-22).

Especially with a veteran squad leading the way, the ‘Dawgs will look to avenge the 35-25 home loss to the Storm from last season.

“Their seniors are loaded,” Garza said. “You look at their offense: five senior offensive linemen, a senior quarterback, a running back, a receiver. A very experienced group.”

One senior name that has been grabbing the headlines is running back Daniel Amaro. This run-heavy LC team has rushed for 250 yards or more in the first three games, with Amaro totaling 517 yards and 11 touchdowns while averaging roughly 172 yards per game (yes, you read that correctly).

“He's (Amaro) a heck of a player,” Garza said. “He's been able to bust a big one and make people pay for trying to tackle high. He runs hard. He's kind of what their offense is built around.”

For Cleveland, it’s been all about the air raid. Senior quarterback Jordan Hatch, behind a stellar Storm offensive line, has been picking apart defenses. Hatch has 10 touchdown passes on the year with an average of 265 yards per game.

In the receiving core, sophomore Evan Nanez has the early makings of the next Cleveland star weapon. After putting up a four-score day against Clovis last week, Nanez now has five touchdowns and 341 yards on the year. Along with Nanez, four different Cleveland receivers are averaging 50 yards per game or more (Nanez, Maldonado, Vigil, Weddle).

This matchup has the makings of something out of a movie, but Garza insists that it's just another week of prep, focus and business as usual.

“We have a pretty good process here that we feel like works. Most of the time, we're just focusing on us, trying to focus on the things that we can control,” Garza said. “Focusing on the things that we can do to get better, that's just kind of how we handle business around here.”

While the Bulldawgs have been a familiar face toward the top of the 6A rankings, they are still looking for their first win over Cleveland since 2016.

Cleveland and Las Cruces are set for a 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 12, at Lightning Bolt Stadium.