Prep football: Clovis tops Jaguars

ALBUQUERQUE - The Clovis Wildcats proved in Friday's first-round contest that it's not about winning style points in November, but just winning.

The No. 9 'Cats halted No. 8 Atrisco Heritage Academy's triple option rushing attack, holding the Jaguars to just 143 rushing yards in a 26-8 victory.

"We talked about it all week, we knew they had a great running game. Their triple option is really hard to stop, and we hadn't seen it probably since the last time we played these guys three years ago," Wildcats coach Cal Fullerton said. "We prepared all week for it - we did give up a couple plays here and there, but our defense has been our backbone all year. They proved that tonight, as well."

Clovis (6-5) stormed out of its opening possession by putting together a nine-play, 59-yard drive that lasted 7:09. Quarterback Darian Goins snuck it in from 1 yard out to give the Wildcats the early 6-0 advantage.

After forcing a three-and-out against Atrisco (7-4) on their first defensive series, the Wildcats slowly began to bend on their next couple of defensive possessions.

The Jaguars marched to the Clovis 37 and faced a third-and-6, as quarterback Michael Alvidrez kept it for four yards to make it fourth-and-2 from the 33. Atrisco was then called for a false start, before a swing pass from Alvidrez to Jordan Marquez was stopped behind the line for a loss of two yards.

However, an officiating gaffe allowed for another Jaguar fourth-down attempt, but luckily for Clovis, another Atrisco false start penalty gave the Jaguars no choice but to punt it.

Atrisco knocked on the door once again on its next drive, marching 63 yards from its own 2-yard line, down to the Clovis 35 in 13 plays. However, the more than four minute drive was once again stopped by the Wildcat defense, as a fourth-and-2 toss play to Angel Ramirez gained just one yard.

"We didn't finish our drives," Jaguars coach Patrick Johnson said. "And we had a couple of real costly penalties on the interception in the second-half."

The interception that Johnson was alluding to occurred when the Jaguars were trailing 12-0 and still very much alive in the game, early in the fourth quarter.

Backup quarterback Brandt Davis threw what appeared to be an interception inside of the Atrisco 10-yard line, which was in turn returned 24 yards the other way to give the Jaguars new life.

Davis, who played most of the game as Goins was knocked out with a possible knee injury in the first half, had struggled in the early going. But started to heat up after halftime and essentially got new life himself when the Jaguars were called for a defensive holding.

One play later, Davis threw a screen pass to Seth Lopez, who broke one tackle and walked into the end zone to extend the Wildcat lead to 19-0 to effectively put the game on ice.

Clovis will now have to travel back to Albuquerque next Friday for No. 1 Manzano. The last time the two programs squared off, things didn't go too well for Clovis, who lost, 34-10, in a home game back on Oct. 13.

For Fullerton, a more consistent offensive effort will give his Wildcats a better chance to succeed next week.

"I think we had 96 total yards (against Manzano), and 60 of those were on the first drive. We went down and scored on our very first drive," Fullerton explained. "We have to be something similar to what we were that first drive the entire game for four quarters against those guys. Not necessarily score, but we've gotta keep our defense off the field. Those guys have probably the best athletes in the state. Offensively, we're gonna have to control the clock, take care of the football and move the chains."