Portales football team won't take NMMI for granted

PORTALES — The Portales Rams are coming off one of their toughest football games of the year, after facing off with district foe Moriarty.

Portales, however, was ultimately victorious in its road trip against a then-one-loss opponent in the Pintos, winning a defensive struggle, 13-7.

“First of all, we knew that Moriarty was a good football team,” Rams coach Jaime Ramirez said. “Both of us were 7-1 coming in, and we both had tough losses (along the way). They beat St. Mike’s (who Portales lost to 21-20 earlier in the year) by a big margin.

“We pride ourselves on playing great defense and making big plays on offense, and we knew that Moriarty could do the same thing. We felt it was a great matchup. (Moriarty) did a great job on defense and so did we.”

Portales (8-1, 3-0 4A District 4) battled back and forth with the Pintos (7-2, 2-1) throughout the ballgame, and even trailed Moriarty, 7-0, for a good portion of the game. According to Ramirez, the Pintos made a key defensive stop in the first-half of last Friday’s game, but in the end, it was the Rams who made the big fourth quarter stop on defense to secure the victory.

A huge win like that certainly taught Ramirez a lot about his football team — who, with the win, clinched the 4A District 4 title. “Our kids work hard. I have a good group of boys, and they do a good job of staying close together,” Ramirez said. “(Us coaches) knew they were competitors, and they show it every week in practice and on gameday.”

Tonight, Portales closes out the regular season at Greyhound Stadium, as the Rams will host a district opponent on the opposite end of the spectrum — New Mexico Military Academy. NMMI is just 1-8 on the season, including 0-3 in district play.

The Colts have scored just 32 points (3.6 per game) thus far. Offensively, NMMI has been changing up its formations and looks the past few weeks during district play, according to Ramirez.

The Colts have been shut out six times already, with their highest single-game scoring total being 15 — which happens to be their only win. That victory, 15-6 over Loving on Sept. 29, has been followed by three-straight losses, which netted NMMI just 10 total points.

Defensively, NMMI runs an aggressive 4-3, which includes a two-high safety look. Things on that side of the ball aren’t much better for the Colts, however. The defense has allowed 373 points (41.4 per contest) already, including four games of 50-plus points each.

Despite all that, Ramirez thinks tonight’s game could pose some challenges for his Rams. “Even though they’re 1-8, we feel like they’re a dangerous team,” he said. “They got nothing to lose, and they’re playing for pride. They’re searching for an identity and looking to make big things happen, so we gotta be ready.”

The Rams will look to close out the regular season on a six-game winning streak. And while the defending 4A state champions’ success is once again a surprise to no one, they’ve still struggled to consistently do one thing — play at a high-level for 48 minutes.

“I just want us to play a complete game (tonight),” Ramirez said. “We need to execute on offense for four quarters, continue to play great defense for four quarters and play great on special teams all night. That’s something I definitely want to see us accomplish.”