Quick hits from Week 6 in Lea County football

Kimberly Ryan/Hobbs News-Sun

Lovington quarterback David Robles rushes against

West Las Vegas on Friday at Wildcat Stadium.

  Week 6 of the prep football season is in the books and teams from Lea County either kept rolling, got back on track or had the wheels come off Friday evening.
  — At Watson Stadium at the game I was at, Hobbs just fell apart in the second half against Alamogordo in an important matchup for both. It started some in the second quarter after the Eagles built a 14-3 lead when a Hobbs punt was blocked, leading to a quick score and igniting a 33-point run for the Tigers.
  Hobbs trailed 17-14 heading into the third quarter when Alamogordo took advantage of five Eagle second-half turnovers (Hobbs finished with six in all) to put the game out of reach and eventually win 50-21.
  The Eagles' playoff chances probably rest on beating one (and most likely both) of their district opponents. The offense did look better with the return of Aderiole Moore (he finished with 169 yards on the ground) but Hobbs will need more than just him to step up if it wants to beat Lovington this week.
  Read more of my thoughts on Hobbs' loss to Alamogordo and where the Eagles are heading in my column in Sunday's sports section of the News-Sun.
  — Lovington got back on track with a much-needed victory over West Las Vegas 44-0 Friday at Wildcat Stadium.
  The Wildcats had lost their last two games, both Texas opponents, and for a team that is still trying to find its rhythm after losing so much from last season's state championship team, a win like Friday's goes a long way in building the confidence of the players – particularly the offense. Hobbs will be a good test for Lovington this week and it should be a battle.
  — In a game that featured first-year Eunice head coach Daniel Hutchins facing his former team Tucumcari, the Class 2A second-ranked Cardinals pounced on the fifth-ranked Rattlers for 30 first-quarter points on their way to a 60-30 win.
  Eunice continues to rack up big numbers on offense, averaging 50.5 points per game, and is 6-0 for the first time since its 2000 state championship team. Eunice travels to play Cloudcroft next week, looking to start 7-0 for the first time since 1958 when the Cardinals finished the season 10-0 and won the state title.

Make or break for Hobbs? Cleveland tops in state?

Hobbs' Austin Hand makes a tackle against Artesia.

  As I sat down to write my preview for tonight's Hobbs/Alamogordo football game, I realized more and more the team that comes up short tonight (both teams enter the game with a 2-3 mark) is going to have a long road ahead of it if it wants to get in the 12-team Class 5A playoffs.
  For Hobbs, a loss would drop the Eagles to 2-4 with a home game against Lovington (winnable) and a road matchup with Goddard (going to be tough). Say Hobbs splits those games, the Eagles are 3-5 heading into district play with Clovis at home (the Wildcats are down, but still Clovis) and hit the road to play Carlsbad (the Cavemen have been impressive this season with wins over Mayfield and Artesia already under their belt).
  In my eyes, Hobbs would have to win at least one of those games to have a chance to get in and even still at 4-6 wouldn't be guaranteed a spot.
  A win tonight, a win against either Lovington or Goddard and a win against either Clovis or Carlsbad (a district win will be key) and I think Hobbs definitely makes the playoffs.

With Locksley gone, UNM needs to rebuild fans' trust

  To much of the surprise of nobody, the University of New Mexico cut loose football coach Mike Locksley on Sunday after two-plus seasons of misery for Lobos fans. Locksley went 2-26 during his tenure, including 0-4 this season after a loss to FCS opponent Sam Houston State on Saturday.

  While his on-the-field performance was poor at best, off the field was even worse. There was the suspension after punching a fellow coach, the verbal run-in with a student reporter, the sexual harassment suit and most recently Saturday when a man (supposedly a recruit) was arrested prior to the Lobos' game for suspicion of driving while intoxicated in a vehicle registered to Locksley's wife.

  While it will cost UNM $150,000 over each of the next two years, I bet it is worth it to Lobos fans to see him go.

  So, where does UNM go from here? 

  The most important objective UNM administration must accomplish is bringing fans and their support back to the program. The last two-plus years alienated many UNM football supporters as not only did Locksley lose, he also failed to recruit Division-I caliber, in-state talent (see Colorado 6-foot-5 wide receiver Tyler McCulloch from Eldorado in Albuquerque).

No time for Hobbs to dwell on brutal two-week stretch

Hobbs' Daniel Cornejo gets ready to tackle Cleveland's
Cole Gautsche on Friday in Rio Rancho.

  RIO RANCHO — There is no need to break down Hobbs' 54-0, mercy-rule loss to top-ranked Cleveland Friday night at Cleveland High School in Rio Rancho.
  The Storm were bigger, faster and stronger. Cleveland's defense was suffocating. For the second straight game, Hobbs couldn't get anything going offensively, gaining just 29 yards in the two quarters (the game ended on the third play of the third quarter when Cleveland scored to make it 54-0, forcing the 50-point mercy rule). This comes on the heels of Hobbs gaining just 80 yards during a 40-0 loss to second-ranked Las Cruces High last week.
  Hobbs coach Bruce Dollar said it best after the game if you're a Hobbs player or supporter. He told me while his team needs to learn from the mistakes of the last two games, his team can't dwell on the losses.
  Hobbs has run into two juggernauts – the two top teams in Class 5A (and arguably in the state, though Goddard may have something to say about that – a team Hobbs faces later this season). If the Eagles sulk and dwell on these last two contests, it can bite them in the rear during a winnable game this upcoming week against Alamogordo.
  A win next week against Alamogordo, which is also 2-3 on the season, would go a long way in helping the Eagles' playoff chances down the road.
  Yes, Hobbs can still make the playoffs – if it can shake off these losses, regroup and move forward starting at homecoming against the Tigers this Friday at Watson Stadium.

 

Hobbs on wrong end of numbers game, Eunice highlights

  I usually get to a football game I'm covering about an hour ahead of time so I can watch the teams warm up, see if anyone is not playing and to shoot the breeze with fellow journalists, athletic directors, radio guys or whoever.
  Nothing was different when I arrived at the Field of Dreams on Friday in Las Cruces for Hobbs' game against the second-ranked Bulldawgs. I went up to the press box for a bit, got my stat sheets together and prepared to cover the game from the sideline (I had to take photos as well).
  But something that was hard not to notice when watching Hobbs and Las Cruces warm up high from the press box was the drastic difference in number of players.
  I usually don't count, but I had to just because of the disparity. I counted Las Cruces about two or three times and got a number above 75 each time (not always easy to count players as they move around).
  When I got a number for Hobbs I had to check not once, twice or three times, but four times to make sure it was right.
  There were exactly 35 Eagles with white shirts and black pants dressed to play. That's it.
  For a 5A school with 2,176 high school age students (9th-12th grade), that is shockingly small and part of the reason why Hobbs football can't develop consistency as a program.
  Football is a numbers game. The more players, the better chance of developing varsity-contributing athletes. The more varsity-contributing athletes (with a few studs sprinkled in here and there), the better chance of being a state-championship contender.

Field of Nightmares for Eagles

  LAS CRUCES — Oh boy.
  The Field of Dreams was a nightmare for the Hobbs football team as second-ranked Las Cruces High blanked the Eagles 40-0 Friday (read the game story in Saturday's sports section of the Hobbs News-Sun). The Bulldawgs outgained Hobbs 475-80 – yes, the Eagles only managed 80 yards of offense.
  Hobbs had just one snap in Las Cruces territory, and that was a fumble recovered by Las Cruces.
  Sure, the Eagles struggled not having leading rusher Aderiole Moore (he missed the game due to a violation of team rules) and it didn't help that his replacement Keith Sanders was injured on the first play from scrimmage, but their presence wouldn't have changed much.
  Hobbs just didn't execute offensively. Rarely did Eagle ball carriers have space to run, Hobbs dropped passes and the Eagles missed open receivers.

Jal's Norman Cline passes away

  In more sad news dealing with Lea County athletics, long-time Jal coach Norman Cline died Wednesday.
  Cline was one of the first coaches I met when I came to work for the News-Sun over five years ago. He had a great sense of humor (like the rest of the Jal coaching staff) and always gave me grief for being a University of Oregon graduate.
  It's tough to see someone who dedicated their life to making a difference in others pass away. Sure, Cline led Jal to a state boys basketball title in 2000 and was part of the coaching staff of the 1999 Jal football state championship team, but he was more than that. He tried to help teenagers, like all good coaches do, become men and women. Cline was a fiery character who wore every win and loss on his sleeve, which I respected about him. When things were going well, he praised his players, and if things weren't going well, he took the blame. Cline will be missed.
  Cline's memorial service will be 2 p.m. Sunday in Jal.