Rams thump Warriors, improve to 7-1

The Portales Rams made good use of their bye week as they utterly dominated their Class 4-4A opponent Ruidoso 58-23 Friday night.

Last year, the Rams mercy-ruled the Warriors 54-0 with the game ending in the third quarter. This year the result wasn’t much different as Portales (7-1, 2-0 district) imposed its will throughout the game, never giving Ruidoso (5-4, 2-1) a chance for an upset.

Portales coach Jaime Ramirez giving his starters the entire fourth quarter off to give his backups some playing time when the Rams led 58-10.

“We could have gone for two (points) and ended the game,” said Ramirez, who opted to kick an extra point following that touchdown. “We wanted to give our younger guys some experience playing because you don’t know how many games you’ll get like this.”

Three plays into the game the Rams defense forced a fumble that Trenton Small fell on to give Portales the ball inside Ruidoso’s 30-yard line. Two plays later, running back Darion Ontiveros took the hand-off and ran in for a 24-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead 90 seconds into the game.

The second drive was nearly a carbon-copy of the first as Portales forced a three-and-out and once again on the second Rams play of the drive, Ontiveros scored a 36-yard touchdown run. Ontiveros would finish with four rushing touchdowns.

Earlier in the week coach Ramirez said his goal was for the Rams to be in control of all three sections of the game: Offense, defense and special teams. It was clear that the two weeks of preparation for this game allowed his team to do just that.

“We definitely won in all three phases of the game,” he said. “It was sleek. Very proud of our team. I thought it was a great team effort.”

Portales built a 27-0 lead before their defense gave up its first first down of the game in the final minute of the first quarter. However, the Rams stopped the Warriors on a fourth down attempt to end that drive. This time Portales needed just one play as quarterback Junior Ramirez found Adrian Short for a 75-yard touchdown pass. Ramirez also threw touchdown passes to Juan Espanoza (22 yards) and Tyrese Dawson (2 and 52 yards).

The Rams entered the second half up 35, and the remaining 24 minutes went quickly with the running clock. Just for good measure, Junior Ramirez took the opening snap of the second half 80 yards for a quarterback keeper to put the Rams up 52-10.

Portales returns home for its final home game of the regular season when it hosts the newest member of District 4-4A, the Moriarty Fighting Pintos Friday at 7 p.m.