The Rio Rancho Rams will square off against the Centennial Hawks at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday.
Rio Rancho is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of New Mexico's top teams: Cleveland, who was ranked 20th at the time (Rio Rancho was ranked fifth). Neither the Rams nor the Storm could gain the upper hand on Saturday so the two teams had to settle for a 0-0 draw. Both teams had to tread carefully at times as the refs weren't afraid to hand out yellow cards: Micah Brichford was handed one for Rio Rancho, while Cleveland got theirs courtesy of Dakota Jones.
Meanwhile, Centennial had already proven themselves in the regular season and they didn't miss a beat now that it's playoff time. They had just enough and edged out Gadsden 2-1 on Wednesday. Winning may never get old, but Centennial sure are getting used to it with their third in a row.
Diego Valenzuela and Tyler Ward scored both of Centennial's goals, bringing their combined season tally to 11 goals.
Rio Rancho's draw gives them a new season record of 13-4-2. As for Centennial, their victory bumped their record up to 14-5-2.
Rio Rancho might still be hurting after the 3-0 loss they got from Centennial in their previous matchup back in August of 2023. Can the Rams avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
