Long-standing rivals Las Cruces and Mayfield High School meet in game one of season

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KVIA) -- For the first time ever, the long-standing rivalry between the Las Cruces Bulldawgs and the Mayfield Trojans will meet in the first game of the season on Friday.

The traditional schedule is these two teams would typically meet on the final week of the regular season. However, when Mayfield moved down to class 5A these two teams were forced to not play in a district championship game.

The Bulldawgs and Trojans have met in district championships and even state championships back in 2002 and 2013 with Las Cruces winning both titles.

Last season (2023-2024), the Bulldawgs met the Trojans in the fourth week of the season and finished on top with a 44-7 victory.

"In December of last year they kind of called us out," Las Cruces head football coach Mark Lopez said. "They arranged the whole thing and said they wanted to play us in week one. We were happy to oblige and it gave us some motivation and some fire throughout the off season to get us ready for week one."

"We're both trying to get out former identities as a team," Mayfield head football coach Gary Bradley said. "There's a little bit of cruces high involved, we can't hideaway from that and we don't want to hideaway from that. The number one thing is it's the first game so it's the most important game and I know it's a little coach speak but it might as well be Las Cruces."