Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Clovis High senior Clifton Brown hauls in a pass from sophomore quarterback Javier Jimenez and scores a second-quarter touchdown on a play covering 33 yards in Friday's District 3-6A matchup at Leon Williams Stadium. The winless Wildcats carried a three-point lead into halftime, but the Knights eventually pulled away to a 42-24 victory.
For a while, Clovis High's football team looked like it might end its season-long losing streak on Friday night.
The Wildcats went toe-to-toe with Organ Mountain in their District 3-6A clash at Leon Williams Stadium. In the end, though, the Knights pulled away with three second-half tallies for a 42-24 win, keeping CHS winless for the season.
Junior running back John Royal broke off a 77-yard scoring run on the team's first play from scrimmage, and sophomore quarterback Javier Jimenez threw a pair of first-half touchdown passes for the Cats (0-7, 0-3 district). They then stretched their lead to 24-21 with a safety near the end of the half.
But they just couldn't keep up after that. Knights senior quarterback Xavier Perez ran for three touchdowns, including two in the second half, and also completed a 6-yard TD toss to senior wide receiver Lennis Washington.
"We won the first half," first-year Clovis coach Stan Hodges said. "Our kids played well, and we had a lot of good things happen.
"The kids played their tails off; I'm really proud of them. We really grew tonight."
Trailing 15-8, Jimenez found junior wide receiver Clifton Brown on a 33-yard pass late in the first quarter. The Cats' 2-point conversion try failed, but they went in front on a 68-yard completion from Jimenez to sophomore wide receiver Ethan Gutierrez with nine minutes left in the half, and Jimenez tacked on a conversion run to make it 22-15.
The Perez-to-Washington connection pulled Organ Mountain (4-4, 3-1) to within a point midway through the period, but the conversion try failed.
After the safety, the Cats got the ball back and pushed inside the Knights' 30 only to have senior safety Riley Test pick off a pass in the final minute.
Perez, who scored on a 17-yard run in the opening stanza, added a 1-yard run early in the third to put the Knights ahead for good. He followed that up with a 2-yard TD run early in the fourth frame.
The Cats then drove inside the Knights' 20 only to turn the ball over on downs. Organ Mountain put the tilt out of reach on a 2-yard run by sophomore Jaden Gonzales with three minutes remaining.
Hodges said the team's defense showed signs of life.
"We made them punt a couple of times tonight and stopped them on fourth down one time," he said. "Our defense made some improvement tonight."
The Cats have three games remaining, starting with a trip to Hobbs (3-4, 1-2) on Friday. They host Centennial (7-0, 3-0) on Oct. 25 before closing the campaign at Alamogordo (1-7, 0-4) on Nov. 1.
"I think that after tonight, we've always got a chance," Hodges said. "If we can win that first half and just stay in the game, we'll have a chance."
