Valley overwhelms Manzano 50-0 in Class 5A first round
Nov. 4—More than perhaps any other time this season, the Valley Vikings are giving off serious playoff contender vibes.
No. 6 seed Valley looked strong and had an abbreviated Saturday afternoon in the Class 5A first round, dominating No. 11 Manzano 50-0 at Milne Stadium.
The Monarchs hung 42 points on Valley last month and gave the Vikings fits, but Valley was having none of that drama this time.
"The boys came in focused, and from the jump, the same way we saw with the Los Alamos game," Valley coach Billy Cobos said, referring to a game two weeks ago at Milne in which the Vikings clinched a district title against the Hilltoppers. "You could tell they were on a different level, and ready to go play playoff football."
Valley (8-3) visits No. 3 Piedra Vista (5-5) at 7 p.m. Friday in the quarterfinals.
The Vikings clinched the win on Charles Lopez-Burton's 1-yard touchdown run, and subsequent PAT, on the final play of the third quarter.
But while many other days in the second half of this season belonged to Lopez-Burton, who topped 300 yards against the Monarchs a few weeks ago — and he was effective as always on Saturday, with 13 carries for 75 yards, plus a pick-6 in the first half — this day belonged to the other member of the Vikings' backfield.
That would be senior Tazhe Wilson, who rushed for 105 yards on eight carries, with three touchdowns. Wilson (injury) didn't play against Manzano the first time.
"I got the ball, I felt good, got some momentum and started rolling with it," Wilson said.
He scored the game's first touchdown, a 27-yarder moments after an 11-yard Manzano punt.
Valley extended to a 23-0 lead on a 39-yard touchdown pass to Daniel Garcia (which followed an interception), and Lopez-Burton's 40-yard interception return. Wilson added scoring runs of 7 yards and 19 yards in the second quarter.
"Tazhe is a big piece to the offense," Lopez-Burton said.
"He played great," added Cobos. "It's not all about Charlie Lopez-Burton. We wanted to display Tazhe and his skills and his talent, and that's what we were hoping for this week."
Valley moved in front 43-0 right before halftime on the second pick-6 of the half, this one 23 yards by Natavious Stallworth.
Valley is in the quarterfinals for the second straight season.
Manzano finished 2-9.
VALLEY 50, MANZANO 0
Manzano 0 0 0 x — 0
Valley 23 20 7 x — 50
Scoring: V, Tazhe Wilson 27 run (Wilson run); Daniel Garcia 39 pass from Julian Butkivich (Sebastian Stoker kick); Charles Lopez-Burton 40 interception return (Lopez-Burton run); Wilson 7 run (Stoker kick); Wilson 19 run (Stoker kick); Natavious Stallworth 23 interception return (PAT failed); Lopez-Burton 1 run (William Bradford kick). Records: V 8-3; M 2-9.
First downs: M 5; V 11. Rushes-yards: M 22-44; V 30-213. Passing: M 5-12-3 — 42; V 2-7-0 — 51. Total offense: M 86; V 264. Punts-avg.: M 1-38.0; V 1-31.0. Fumbles-lost: M 1-1; V 0-0. Penalties-yards: M 4-27' V 4-30.
ALSO SATURDAY: There were only five other playoff games on the schedule.
No. 6 Aztec beat 11th-seeded Taos 21-14 in the 4A first round, as the Tigers advanced to the quarterfinals to face No. 3 Silver in the quarterfinals. Aztec lost a close 14-7 game at home to the Colts in September.
New Mexico Military Institute and Raton won first-round games in the 3A bracket.
The Tigers went on the road and eliminated Thoreau 35-8, while the Colts won 48-8 at home over Navajo Prep.
The top two seeds in Class 2A, posted lopsided victories in the quarterfinals. No. 1 Eunice blanked Escalante 49-0, No. 2 Texico was a 50-0 winner over Estancia.
