For The 1st Time Ever Las Cruces vs Mayfield Will Kickoff The Football Season
The Las Cruces High School vs Mayfield High School football game is widely regarded as one of the best rivalries not only New Mexico, but the entire country. In 2008, Rivals.com ranked the rivalry as the 9th best in the nation, and in 2013, USA Today ranked it in their top 10.
The two schools have met to decide district winners and even state championships (2002, 2013). Traditionally, the two programs would meet on the final week of the regular season. Mayfield recently moved down a classification, forcing the two teams to play at some point other than the district finale. This year, for the first time in the history of this long-standing rivalry, the Bulldawgs and Trojans will meet on the first game of the season. The Las Cruces vs Mayfield matchup will take place Friday August 23rd at the Field of Dreams Stadium in Las Cruces. “If it can’t be the last game, it might as well be the first,” said Mayfield football coach Gary Bradley.
“It gave our guys a boost in the offseason knowing who they were preparing for in week 1,” said Las Cruces head coach Mark Lopez. “Those guys have been, and are still, our biggest rivals. The history of district championship games, playoff games, and state championship games against each other has been something that’s tough to match in any state. Although it may look a little different now, this is still a heated rivalry.”
Bradley knows this rivalry runs deep in southern New Mexico. “There’s a lot of passion between the teams, schools and community,” he said. “Regardless of what has happened in the past, either you’re a Trojan or a Bulldawg in this town and you have stories to tell, and you want and need your team to win the rivalry game.”
Of all the games these two schools have played against each other, the two head coaches recall their most memorable. “We were playing back in the early 2000’s, still at Aggie Memorial in front of 25,000 fans, and we were backed up on the one-yard line,” Bradley remembers. “We called a play action pass to Tim Tolbert and scored a 99-yard TD. I’ve never heard a crowd erupt like that when Tim caught the ball. There are so many great games between Mayfield and Cruces, it’s hard to pin down one moment. “
For Lopez, his best memory of the rivalry is from the 2013 State Championship in which Las Cruces won 27-26. “We went down 14-0 in that game with a sophomore starting quarterback,” described Lopez. “To come back the way we did and to end the game with a blocked kick is something I’ll never forget!”
Let’s hope this rivalry, whether played in Week 1 or the last game of the season, continues to provide memorable moments.
*NOTE: Other Week 1 games in 2024 include crosstown rivals Santa Fe vs Capital and Carlsbad vs Artesia in the annual Eddy County War (one of the oldest rivalries in the state).
