Wildcats cruise past Highland

You know things have been easy for the Clovis Wildcats when it's two weekends into September, the extra point team has come out 18 times and the punt team has yet to see the field.

Clovis didn't play a perfect game by any stretch, but Kamal Cass and an opportunistic defense more than covered up any and all mistakes in a 67-12 blowout of Highland Friday night at Leon Williams Stadium.

CMI photo: Kevin Wilson

Clovis senior defensive tackle Austin Gallegos tries to wrap up Highland quarterback Francisco Trujillo during the game Friday night at Leon Williams Stadium. Clovis defeated the Hornets 67-12.

In posting its second straight blowout to open the year, the Wildcats (2-0) scored their highest point total in 21 years. The Wildcat record came in a 75-0 win in 1991 over Santa Fe.

Cass, a 5-foot-9, 165-pound junior, led the Clovis attack with 212 yards on 29 carries, including touchdown runs of 14, 6, 55 and 18 yards. But he had plenty of help, as six other players scored touchdowns on a night where six Highland turnovers made the score look as if the Wildcat fans had instead paid to see a six-man football game.

Clovis coach Eric Roanhaus said Cass, who added two catches for 37 yards, is the top runner in what is a pretty solid crop of junior running backs.

"We give him the ball five times, give him a Gatorade and give it to him five more times," Roanhaus said of Cass.

CMI photo: Kevin Wilson

Clovis junior Kamal Cass gets set to shake a defender on the Wildcats' opening drive Friday night at Leon Williams Stadium. Clovis defeated the Hornets 67-12, with Cass compiling 212 yards on 29 carries, with four touchdowns.

Also in the act on rushing touchdowns were quarterback Kordell Tindle, running backs Shaprei Bryant and Jaheem Prioleau and Fullback Marcos Trujillo, who capped the game with a 25-yard burst up the. Idle to end the game via the 50-point mercy rule.

Highland (0-2) got a pair of big play scores, a 37-yard interception return by Rashad Ortiz and a 66-yard reception by Raheim McGhee, but it wasn't nearly enough to overcome six turnovers -- five via interception.

"We had a penalty that set us back, then we have a play that set us back," Highland coach Derek Maestas said. "That's youth."

Tindle and backup signal caller Jared Wagner both tossed touchdown passes, with Tindle's a 9-yarder to Erik Thomas and Wagner's a 32-yard bomb that hit Traivon Sopila in stride at the goal line.

Clovis, originally scheduled to open on the road before Santa Fe Capital switched game sites last week to make Roanhaus' state-record 311th victory a home game, will face their first road test next Saturday in a 2 p.m. Game against Manzano at F.M. Wilson Stadium.