Regional preview: Elida, Floyd set for clash

September is more than half over and though Melrose’s football team isn’t in panic mode yet, the Buffaloes would like to rebound tonight after suffering two straight losses following an opening-week victory.

Two teams straddling the state line — Texico and Farwell — will also clash tonight. Roosevelt County rivals Elida and Floyd do battle on Saturday afternoon, as does Dora, who visits faraway Pine Hill, all part of a big weekend of area football.

Tonight

Mountainair (3-1) at Melrose (1-2), 5:30 p.m.

This game has a couple of big implications.

Aside from the Buffaloes looking to end their losing streak at two and get to .500, it’s also a rematch of last year’s state 8-man championship game, which Melrose won 76-24 during Thanksgiving weekend to capture the program’s fourth consecutive state title.

The latter note is a big reason why Buffaloes first-year head coach Caleb King cited tonight’s home game as one of his team’s three most important last month when looking ahead at the season. The former, he couldn’t have known about, but now that is a heavy factor and makes tonight’s game a crucial one for Melrose.

The Mustangs won’t make it easy.

Aside from sporting a 3-1 record and being ranked third in the state by MaxPreps, they’ve churned out 158 total points in their three victories this season (52.7 per game), including a 52-0 pasting of Ramah at home last week.

One interesting note in the common opponents category — Melrose also beat Ramah, posting a 54-0 victory on Sept. 1 in a neutral-site game at Mountainair High School.

Attempts to reach King by telephone Thursday night were unsuccessful.

Farwell (2-1) at Texico (2-2), 6:30 p.m.

Each cross-state rival is coming off a victory last week — Farwell at home, Texico on the road.

One of the teams will be cooled off tonight when they clash at Texico High School — unlikely but possible, since it did happen to Goddard and Carlsbad when lightning ended their scoreless game three weeks ago.

Both the Steers and Wolverines had key offensive players burn respective opponents last week. For Texico, the main man was under center, as quarterback Ben Loewen threw three scoring passes and also rushed for a touchdown. Skyler Davis caught two of Loewen’s touchdown passes, Gabriel Bailey the other. Those skill players should be of concern to Farwell’s defense tonight.

Ricardo Ortega was the most effective for the Steers’ offense, accounting for two-thirds of their rushing yards at Capitan by bolting for 238 on 24 carries. Also potential trouble for Texico’s D are Farwell quarterbacks Leefe Actkinson and Leo Ruiz. Actkinson threw two touchdown passes and rushed for another; for Ruiz it was vice versa as he rushed for two scores and threw for one.

And the Wolverines can’t forget about Sterling Henderson, either. Against Capitan, he caught two touchdown passes covering a total of 78 yards.

Saturday

Dora (3-1) at Pine Hill (0-2), 1 p.m.

The Coyotes hadn’t tasted defeat this season until last week’s 26-20 home loss against Menaul.

They hope to return to winning in Saturday’s road game. But what a road game it will be.

Pine Hill is five and a half hours away. To break it up, Dora’s team is heading to Albuquerque today, staying overnight, then driving the remaining two hours on Saturday morning. The Coyotes plan on making the return trip all in one fell swoop, though.

“I think we’ll be fine,” Dora head coach Mason McBee said Thursday night. “We’ve done things like this before so we already have a process and a way we go about things. As long as they get their rest and do the things we need to do as far as preparation, I think we’ll be fine.”

Once the Coyotes have arrived in Pine Hill, McBee is confident they can get turned around quickly, bag that fourth win. He thinks Dora probably should be 4-0 heading into Saturday’s game.

“Whenever we’ve looked at that (Menaul) loss on film I think we were the better team by far,” he said, “but we didn’t do a lot of the things that we needed to do. So I think we’ll get back on track against Pine Hill and hopefully get a win this week.”

What McBee knows about his Week 5 opponent, though, is pretty general.

“I don’t know a lot other than common opponents,” he said, “and I know they’re running the same scheme as last year, so we’re basically preparing for a lot of the same stuff as last year. They’re not a team that does a lot of filmwork and shares a lot of film. ... But I think the focus is still on us. We blew a lot of assignments (last week). We still should’ve won that game ... so I think the focus is on us cleaning things up and running our assignments and doing the things we need to do like that.”

Elida (3-1) at Floyd (1-1), 1 p.m.

This is a big game for both teams, but Elida seems to be coming in with the most momentum.

Not only are the Tigers on a two-game winning streak — having beaten Vaughn 63-30 on Sept. 7 and won a 41-35 thriller over Carrizozo last weekend, they posted the latter result in one of the most emotional games in program history — Elida’s first home game in eight years.

Floyd, though, has some momentum of its own. After a decisive opening-week loss to Carrizozo and a bye week, the Broncos won at Hondo Valley 32-24 last week.

So, both teams are on a roll. And both would have much to gain from winning this afternoon.

“We’re ready to go and looking forward to Floyd,” Elida head coach Jared Hestand said. “I’ve scouted them and they weren’t really anything we need to worry about, I guess. I think we can handle ’em if we play our game and get pumped and play good offense and good defense.”

Hestand isn’t expecting Floyd to do anything too fancy.

“I think if we run a tight set on defense (we’ll do well) because they run a tight set on offense,” Hestand said. “They don’t hardly pass; all they do is just run the ball. So if we handle them on defense I think we’ll shut them down.

“We’ve got speed and we have big boys. They’ve got some big boys, too, but they really don’t have any speed. So I think we can handle them.”

So what will it take for Floyd to beat Elida, get its second consecutive win?

“A disciplined game,” Broncos head coach Steve Foust said, “be very disciplined on both sides of the ball.”

Despite getting its first win of the season, Floyd suffered a big individual loss last week when starting running back/linebacker Cobe Correa was injured for the duration of the season.

“Other than that we’re doing OK,” Foust said. “We’ve got some players that can step up and I believe they will. He was a great leader as well as a football player, but I believe we have other guys that can step up.”

Elida, says Hestand, is OK in the injury department. There are the matters of a broken collarbone and a broken foot. “Other than that we’re still pretty good,” Hestand said. “I’ve got enough depth that I can replace — I can’t really replace them — but I can get somebody in there that can do just as good of a job.”

Despite the injuries, Hestand thinks the Tigers can outman Floyd.

“(The Broncos) only have seven or eight players that can play,” Hestand said. “I’ve got 14 boys. I’ve got an offense and a defense. I can just outrun ’em, over time get ’em tired.”