H.S. Football: Clovis heads into bye week at 3-1

Autumn and football are often synonymous with each other. But the Clovis football team will spend Friday, the first official day of autumn, off the field.

It is the Wildcats’ bye week, time to rest, regroup and ready themselves to try for a state championship run in the weeks going forward.

They are 3-1. They have scored 139 points, averaging nearly 35 a game. They’ve surrendered 72 points, 18 a game.

They nearly won a Week 3 game at Rio Rancho — an undefeated 6A state champ last season — but dropped a heartbreaker in overtime. Turnovers were the main reason why, and likely their main issue when they prepare to forge back into the season against Cooper (Lubbock, Texas) next week.

Three turnovers on their last three offensive possessions of regulation doomed the ’Cats in that Rio Rancho game. Last week against Goddard they had some difficulty taking care of the ball in the first half, maybe preventing a lopsided game from ending even earlier.

“That’s something we’ve got to clean up, and it’s got to be done soon,” Clovis head coach Cal Fullerton said after Friday’s 41-0 homecoming win over the Rockets.

On the positive side, Clovis’ offense has become more diverse. Friday, senior quarterbacks Brandt Davis and Darian Goins alternated series, throwing a change of pace at Goddard.

“Both of them do a really good job at different things,” Fullerton said. “Brandt does a good job throwing the football, Darian does a good job with his feet. And Darian threw pretty well (against Goddard) as well. I think both of them bring something to the table, so I think we’ll probably continue doing that for a while and see if one breaks away from the other. But right now I’m pretty satisfied, pretty relaxed, when either one of them is in there.”

The Wildcats passed sparingly on Friday because their running game was so effective. When they did take to the air, Davis struck for 69 yards and a score, with Goins tossing for 66 yards. Goins also rushed for 42 yards on three carries; Davis rushed twice for 12 yards, including a touchdown run from inside the 1-yard line.

Even junior quarterback Caden Zarikta got some reps late in Friday’s game, carrying three times for 38 yards.

Senior Aaron Heredia has been the Wildcats’ main receiving target so far. Friday he had four catches for 76 yards, though it was Efren Boceanegra III who caught the touchdown pass, a 22-yarder, from Davis.

The running game is so deep, it is impossible for opponents to key on one player. True, Demerious Milton has been the main threat, including a 159-yard, two-touchdown effort on Friday. But there’s no way for other teams to focus squarely on him, with Seth Lopez (one-yard rushing score Friday night), DeMarco Fitch, Andrew Jaramillo, Montez Wright and Adrian Fitch able to run so effectively.

Trying to spread around the carries seems like a nice problem for a coach to have.

“After every series, all of them are coming up and asking me, ‘Who’s next? Who gets to go in next?’” Fullerton said. “It’s not a problem at all. Honestly, I would say we have the best running back corps in the state of New Mexico. We’ve got five guys that can touch the ball and go the distance at any time.”

The return of Jaramillo after a Week 1 foot injury has been good news. He’s a John Riggins-type of back, with thunder and lightning bottled up in one runner. Friday, he played in the second half and rang up 53 rushing yards on just six carries, 8.8 per carry.

“Someone like Andrew who’s a bulldozer with speed is pretty scary in the backfield,” Fullerton said.

The defense has been stout, especially last week when pitching a shutout against Goddard, and the week prior when senior safety Joe Gallegos picked off previously-unblemished Rio Rancho quarterback Logan Bruere three times.

Special teams has been highlighted by senior placekicker Kabel Brooks. Aside from being reliable on extra points and field goals, his ability to boom the ball into the end zone is effective, too. Last week against Goddard, Brooks landed five kickoffs for touchbacks. And it’s tough for any team to get into an offensive rhythm when continually looking at 80 yards of real estate ahead.

“He does a good job kicking it where we want him to kick it,” Fullerton said. “You can’t ask for a better kicker than that guy right now.”

There’s a solid foundation with potential, and a few tweaks still needed. So Fullerton and his staff hope to make the most of their bye week as possible.

“We’ll watch film as coaches ... watch some film on Cooper and we’ll start preparing for Cooper a little bit,” he said. “We won’t go as long as we normally do. ... We’ll try to get our legs back and try to learn how to take care of the football all over again.”