Clovis falls to 2-2, loses at Lubbock Monterey

LUBBOCK — Say this for the Clovis High football team — the Wildcats never gave up Friday when down by a bunch against Monterey at Lubbock’s Lowrey Field.

Unfortunately, the ’Cats were in never-give-up mode because they gave up a three-touchdown lead before halftime. And though they clawed back, even made it a little interesting in the fourth, the Wildcats fell to Monterey 34-21 and endured their second straight loss, dropping to 2-2 on the season.

“The good thing about it and the sign of a good football team is a team that doesn’t quit, even when they’re down,” Clovis head coach Cal Fullerton said. “I think when we started we were a little wide-eyed about the size and the speed of those guys. I think probably the middle of the second quarter and throughout the rest of the game we played as hard as we could and matched up with them pretty good.

“We tell ’em every time, in high school football if you play as hard as you can, you give yourself a chance to win the football game. And I think if we’d have done it early in the first quarter, we’d have been even closer than we were.”

“That’s a good ball club,” Monterey head coach Wayne Hutchinson said of Clovis. “They’ve got some talent over there. They’ve got some guys that can run, they’re really good in space. I thought we bottled them up for most of the night.”

Clovis whittled a 21-0 halftime deficit into a more reasonable 28-14 hole and even got the ball back when facing that two-touchdown difference. By then, though, it was the fourth quarter, and after the Wildcats went four-and-out on that possession, their fate had been practically determined.

The Wildcats were on their way to that fate in the first half, during which the Plainsmen dominated the line of scrimmage, did mostly what they wanted to do offensively.

“Yeah, I can’t say enough about our offensive line,” Hutchinson said. “For the last two weeks we’ve found our run game and we’re running really well.”

Monterey scored on its first possession of the night, and needed only six plays to travel 71 yards to bag that score.

Running back Damontrareis Lacy picked up nine yards on the Plainsmen’s first play from scrimmage; quarterback Coreon Bailey then gained two; Lacy ran right for 16, and after an incomplete pass and a one-yard Lacy run, Monterey had third-and-nine from Clovis’ 43. On that third-down play, Bailey ran left with a keeper, found plenty of room and soared all the way for a touchdown. Briley Alexander supplied the extra point, and with 6:19 still to play in the first quarter, Monterey was up 7-0.

Clovis reached Monterey’s 43 on its next possession but turned it over on downs. The Plainsmen needed nine plays to get the necessary 57 yards for a score. They converted a fourth-and-two from the Clovis 38 with a 17-yard Bailey run, and on the resulting first down, Bailey ran 16 yards up the middle to the 5. Lacy then carried to the 1, and on second-and-goal, Ty Williams ran in for the score. Alexander’s point-after made it 14-0 with 23 seconds left in the first.

Monterey’s first possession of the second quarter ended with a punt, but the Plainsmen’s second possession of the quarter saw them march 93 yards on 14 plays for another touchdown, despite facing second-and-13 at one point in the drive and second-and-14 at another. The series ended with a 13-yard Bailey run up the middle and into the end zone, and with Alexander’s extra point, Monterey led 21-0 with 2:01 left in the half.

At that juncture of the game, Monterey had 13 first downs, Clovis had three.

“They were getting after us up front,” Fullerton said. “And I think that their skill kids were tough to tackle and I think we had a hard time wrapping up early on.”

Clovis held Monterey to three-and-out on the second half’s opening series, and on the Wildcats’ ensuing possession, they pieced together a 13-play, 67-yard scoring drive on which they converted a third-and-five situation from midfield into a first down with a 15-yard Chance Harris pass to Andrew Jaramillo. And they caught a break with a pass interference penalty when facing fourth-and-six from Monterey’s 31, giving them first down at the Plainsmen 20.

A 15-yard pass from Harris to Fitch that included good running after the catch made it first-and-goal from the 5, and following an incomplete pass and a run for no gain, Jaramillo bulled his way up the middle on third-and-goal from the 5 and found the end zone. The extra point was no good, so Clovis trailed 21-6 with 4:47 to go in the third quarter.

Clovis’ defense then needed to get a stop to keep the momentum going, but Monterey wouldn’t have it and went 71 yards on a nine-play drive that began with a 41-yard Bailey jaunt and ended with a one-yard Lacy run for a score. Alexander’s extra point made it 28-6 with 2:08 left in the third.

Clovis sliced it to 28-14 early in the fourth quarter with a five-play 80-yard drive fueled by a pair of 15-yard Monterey penalties and a 23-yard pass to Jailen Gallegos, and concluded with a 14-yard fade from Harris to Jaramillo in the right corner of the end zone. Even with a man on him, Jaramillo showed good concentration, made the catch and kept his feet in, looking almost Odell Beckham-like in doing so.

Kicker Jose Mendoza took the direct snap on the conversion try and ran it up the middle for two.

Clovis’ defense held on Monterey’s next possession, but a big Montez Wright return on the ensuing punt was nullified when the Wildcats were flagged for blocking in the back and continuing to block out of bounds. The 15-yard foul moved them back to their own 33, and four plays later, they handed it over on downs, having advanced just two yards.

Monterey took over from there and needed just three plays to score — on a 1-yard Williams run.

Clovis did add a 26-yard touchdown pass from Harris to Jaden Phillips and Mendoza’s extra point with 1:53 to go, but Monterey recovered the onside attempt that followed and then ran out the clock.

Though the first half was concerning, the second half and all four turnover-free quarters gave Clovis hope.

“That’s something we can build on, man,” Fullerton said. “That’s a dang good football team we just played, they’re coached well. I wish we’d have showed up a little bit better the first quarter and made it a little bit more of a ballgame."