Cats surge past Carlsbad

CLOVIS – It's no secret when you get ahead of a ground-and-pound team, you've made it hard for that side to come back.

If that team, though, gets out to a lead, they're going to be hard to catch.

Just about everything went right early on Friday night for Clovis High, and the Wildcats used their run-dominant style to lock up a 33-23 victory over former district rival Carlsbad at Leon Williams Stadium and claim their first win in 2023.

Senior quarterback/slotback Jett Stone compiled 151 yards and two touchdowns on the ground, and added 36 yards on two pass receptions from freshman Javi Lopez, including a 16-yard TD toss that staked the Wildcats (1-3) to a 21-0 advantage less than two minutes into the second stanza.

The Cavemen made a late run, but the Cats used a time-consuming 15-play, 75-yard drive that made it 33-17 and chewed up most of the fourth quarter in the process.

"We're definitely going to build off this," Stone said. "We try to take it one game at a time. Next week, we'll try to get a win in Albuquerque."

Clovis now begins a stretch of four road games in the next five, facing Eldorado (2-2) in a 1 p.m. kickoff on Saturday.

Senior Kash Roberts added 83 rushing yards and a pair of scores for Clovis, which led only once in its first three games – 7-0 against Canyon Randall in their previous outing.

Clovis limited the Cavemen to just three first downs and 67 total yards in the first half. Carlsbad failed on fourth and less than one inside its own 40 following the opening kickoff, giving the Cats position to jump in front, and the Cavemen then went three-and-out on their next two possessions.

"The defense played good," Cats coach Andrew McCraw said. "We got some stops early and got head, and we were able to sit on the ball."

The Cats marched 65 yards in 11 plays with the second-half kickoff, chewing up almost six minutes and capped by Stone's 1-yard sneak for a 27-3 lead. Carlsbad scored on all three possessions in the second half, but couldn't get many chunk plays in its bid to come back.

"We wanted to milk the clock as much as we could," said Stone, who moves to a slotback position when Jimenez enters on offense. "The defense played out of their minds. (Senior linemen) Jeremiah (Johnson), Aidan Brown and Cade Spearman played their tails off."

In addition to the early fourth-down failure, the Cavemen fumbled a kickoff after Clovis' second score and the Cats immediately cashed in on the Jimenez-to-Stone pass. Carlsbad's second-half kickoff then went out of bounds, giving Clovis field position at its own 35.

"I just got through telling (his team), 'We're not good enough to beat anybody when you get down 21 points," said Cavemen coach and former Eastern New Mexico University standout Cale Sanders. "That offense is hard to come back against. Schematically, I thought we were good, but we just got out-executed.

"We're going to be aggressive. We have to, because we're young and we can't just line up and beat people."

Junior quarterback Kasen Perez was 17-of-23 for 203 yards for Carlsbad, including 7-of-8 on the team's final drive. Roberts, though, intercepted a 2-point conversion pass, and the Cats were able to run out the clock after recovering an onside kick.