Clovis football team not intimidated by Manzano

CLOVIS — Clovis High's football team needs to right the ship, and will try to do so tonight in the choppiest of waters.

The Wildcats are looking to halt their recent losing streak at two while bagging their first district win. Getting that done would mean beating Manzano tonight at Leon Williams Stadium (7 p.m.). A mere glance at the Monarchs' Maxpreps page shows some gaudy numbers — like 1, their state ranking, and 7, their number of wins so far against no losses.

Clovis, though, is undaunted. As they finished practice late Thursday afternoon, the 'Cats were relishing the challenge. From the coaching staff to the players, their mantra heading into tonight seems to be two words long: bring it.

"Our kids believe they can play with anybody in the state," Clovis head coach Cal Fullerton said, "and I think if we play as hard as we can every snap for four quarters, we'll be in the football game. But we have to do it. You can't just talk about it all week and then show up on Friday and expect it to just happen."

"One of our coaches, Coach Hat (defensive coordinator Drew Hatfield) always preaches to us that we don't need to put anybody on a pedestal," Wildcats senior receiver Efren Boceanegra III said. "They're a good football team, but they're nothing special. We're going to come out and we're going to do our thing."

"They're a good team, but I feel like we have the talent to beat them at any time," Clovis junior linebacker/defensive back Jaylen Mason said. "They're a powerhouse, but I think we have as much talent as them, if not more."

Still, it won't be easy. And for a challenge such as this one, the Wildcats couldn't find themselves at a better locale. They have yet to lose at the friendly confines of Leon Williams Stadium, going 3-0 there so far. But they haven't been at those friendly confines in nearly a month, having had a Sept. 22 bye, then road losses at Lubbock-Cooper on Sept. 29 and Eldorado last Saturday.

Tonight, instead of spending hours on a bus before hitting the field, they'll need only to trot a few feet down from their own locker room before bursting through their big purple balloon thingy and racing onto familiar turf.

"Oh, I love it," Boceanegra said. "I think the crowd's going to play a big role."

"I like playing at home every chance we get," Mason said.

"We always get a good fan base," Fullerton said. "The community's behind us, our fans are behind us, so it oughta be rockin'. We're looking forward to it. Our kids are champing at the bit to get back on the field."

The confidence is there, the home fans will be there. Now, the Wildcats just have to figure out how to stop an explosive Manzano team that turned a scoreless game after one quarter into a 21-0 lead by halftime last week against LaCueva. The Monarchs held on for a 28-21 victory, which was actually their lowest offensive output of the season. In their previous six games, they averaged 47.2 points per game.

Despite last week's relatively modest production — likely due to playing a quality LaCueva team — Manzano had big efforts from senior quarterback Jordan Byrd and junior running back Xavier Ivey-saud, who each rushed for 100-plus yards and two touchdowns. Ivey-saud, the workhorse, barreled for 140 yards on 30 carries; Byrd rushed for 111 yards on just 13 carries, averaging 8.5 per rush.

For the season, Ivey-saud has rushed for 786 yards and 15 scores. Byrd has rung up dual-threat numbers - 663 yards and seven touchdowns passing, 623 yards and 15 touchdowns rushing.

How the heck do you stop that?

"We're going to have to slow their offense down, keep their offense off the field," Fullerton said. "So our offense is going to have to control the ball, control the clock. We're going to have to spread it around a little bit."

Fullerton says the Wildcats may not be able to rely so heavily upon senior running back Demerious Milton, who carried 20 times for 211 yards and four touchdowns last Saturday at Eldorado. "I think they'll probably try to focus on Demerious, stopping him," Fullerton said, "so our other kids are going to have to step up and have good football games. Our offensive line is going to have to come off the football and push them off the line ... and hopefully keep their high-powered offense off the field."

Fullerton said that senior quarterback Darian Goins will again start and be expected — at least initially — to play every offensive down, like he did last week at Eldorado after alternating with senior Brandt Davis in the previous two games.

"We'll see how it goes, see how he does early," Fullerton said. "If we feel as a coaching staff like we need to make a change, we'll do that."

Whomever is starting under center, whomever is taking the handoffs, they have to keep the chains moving along. The Wildcats need a win, need to get back over .500 after dropping to 3-3 last week, need to get their first district win. And what better motivation to do that than by playing the state's best team.

"Luckily we're getting to face off against them," Fullerton said, "and see what we're really made of."