Rams repeat as 4-4A champs

It may have been closer than they wanted in the first half, but the Portales Rams are now the two-time defending Class 4-4A champions following their 40-16 victory over NMMI Friday night.

The first half was a back-and-forth affair with Portales (9-1, 4-0) scoring on every possession and NMMI (3-7, 1-3) scoring on three of their four.

The Rams first got on the board with a 13-yard pass from Junior Ramirez to a wide-open Tyrese Dawson on a fourth-and-goal play. It should be noted that starting running back Darion Ontiveros did not play a single snap in that first drive, but not for any health reasons.

“We just wanted to give Marc some extra work in that drive,” Ramirez said.

Following a 1-yard run by NMMI’s Fausto Baranzini to tie the game at 7, Ontiveros would be inserted into the offense and finished off Portales’ second drive with a 12-yard run to start out the second quarter. The two teams traded touchdowns one more time in the quarter but could only muster six points each.

Christian Padilla scored for the Colts but a missed PAT meant the Rams had a 1-point lead. Juan Espinoza would give Portales their final touchdown of the half with a 16-yard catch but an errant extra point snap kept the lead at just 7.

NMMI had a chance to tie the game going into the half as they marched down to the six-yard line with less than 30 seconds left. However, the Rams defense held strong and limited NMMI to a field goal as time expired to go into the half up 20-16.

“We just spoke about the adjustments both offensively and defensively what we needed to do as well as eliminate the penalties,” Ramirez said about his speech at halftime. “We had three offensive possessions and scored all three times so we were good there.”

The second half was more of the same for Portales, as the Rams scored every time they touched the ball. The Rams took the kickoff and marched down the field before Ramirez called his own number for a 3-yard score.

NMMI tried to respond but with the Colts deep in Portales’ territory but Marc Lovato picked off a Gavin Maloney pass and returned it to the 35-yard line. Ramirez would score one again to start off the fourth quarter

The Colts had one final chance to procure a comeback. Barazini took the first hand-off of the drive and rumbled 57-yards down to Portales’ eight-yard line. The Rams defense held tough, despite penalties extending the possession.

With the win, Portales has likely secured a first-round bye and most likely the No. 2 seed for the Class 4A playoffs.

“We’re going to work on making ourselves better,” Ramirez said of the assumed bye-week. “We don’t know who we’ll play but once we find out who we’ll match up against, we’ll game plan against both of them. We’ll also just get healed up and get ourselves ready.”