The POV is that PV (Piedra Vista) is a contender

Sep. 11—It was an inauspicious start, to say the least.

The first kickoff of the season that Piedra Vista High School's football team put in the air was returned for a touchdown. And by its arch rival, Farmington, no less.

The second play of the game? The Scorpions recovered an onside kick.

"The first two plays, we got hit with adversity," Panthers coach Jared Howell said. "It was a moment where we could have very easily gone south if our attitude was bad."

So much of this prep football season, as it pertained to Class 5A, centered around one district in the south that had four state championship programs grouped together.

Piedra Vista (4-0) has not only inched into the 5A picture, but the Panthers have outright muscled their way into the front seat of the conversation.

The Panthers this week were ranked second by the 5A coaches, the only team from outside the Roswell/Goddard/Mayfield/Artesia district to be included in the top five. They are behind only Artesia.

Piedra Vista already has beaten three 6A programs — Farmington, Sandia and Eldorado — and also beat usually tough Durango, Colorado. Piedra Vista is the last unbeaten team in 5A. Two of their four victories are by a combined three points, having beaten Sandia 14-12 and Durango 14-13.

This surge, Howell said, can be directly traced to the COVID season, and the shortened spring campaign of 2021.

A large group of sophomores finished that abbreviated season, but the table, Howell felt, was being set handsomely for future seasons.

To wit: Piedra Vista won seven games last year and made the playoffs.

This 4-0 start has the Panthers believing they'll be firmly in the race for a top-four seed this fall, and that, of course, would earn Piedra Vista a first-round bye.

The next three weeks will reveal much about the validity of the Panthers' ambitions.

Piedra Vista plays No. 4 Goddard next week, an under-the-radar Valley team the following week, and then the Panthers will visit Wool Bowl to face third-ranked Roswell.

"We've got some decent athletes and they've bought in, and everyone has their arrow pointed in the right direction," Howell said.

This is definitely a transition phase for Piedra Vista; Howell said the school was only a small handful of students away from being placed in the Class 6A division for this two-year school block (2022-23/2023-24). Farmington moved up from 5A to 6A for these next two seasons.

Howell said he fully expects Piedra Vista to be over the enrollment threshold by the time the state finalizes its next realignment and classification, which is December of 2023.

In the meantime, Piedra Vista, which is going to be a heavy favorite in its district, has a definite shot at being a No. 1 playoff seed in Class 5A come November.

"This team has been pretty good about being tested," Howell said. "About staying calm and re-collecting themselves."

CUT SHORT: New Mexico has largely avoided a barrage of weather-related delays this season, but Friday night interfered with a few games.

Two schools in particular — Bernalillo and Robertson — were victims of lightning. Although not to the same degree.

The Spartans were leading Highland 14-0 in the second quarter Friday night, but a stubborn storm cell hovering near Bernalillo's field eventually led to officials declaring it a no-contest, since the game never reached halftime. The game would have had to go two full quarters to count.

In Las Vegas, Robertson was trailing Ruidoso 21-13 late in the third quarter when that game was called. Not being able to finish could have had 3A seeding implications down the road for both the Warriors and the Cardinals.

Ruidoso and Robertson were tied 13-13 when Ruidoso scored a touchdown and 2-point conversion. Before the Warriors even kicked off, lightning sent the teams into their locker rooms.

The game never resumed, and was called with about 4 minutes to go in the third quarter. It's a win for Ruidoso.

STATE RECORD: Bernalillo defensive lineman Michael Ash is a state record holder.

Ash, a senior, recorded 27 tackles last week in the Spartans' 60-22 victory over Del Norte. That's a single-game record, according to the New Mexico Activities Association.

The previous record was 26, by Santa Rosa's Darren Chavez against Texico in 2016.

HURTING: Rio Rancho (3-1 and winners of three straight) saw starting quarterback Noah Nelson injure his right knee in the second half Friday night, and he was on crutches for the fourth quarter of the Rams' 20-13 victory over Organ Mountain. He's going to miss some time, coach Nate Pino said.

Rio Rancho recently lost one of its top receiving targets, Mikey Wood, who broke his collarbone the previous week against El Paso Eastlake and is unlikely to return this season.

SPEAKING OF: Piedra Vista is one of 11 remaining unbeaten, untied teams in 11-Man football. The others are Cibola, Hobbs, Bloomfield, Silver, Portales, Socorro, St. Michael's, Raton, Jal and Loving.