Cats clumsy in defeat

CLOVIS — Friday night’s Rio Rancho-Clovis football game at Clovis High School had mistakes aplenty. But it was the Rams taking advantage of Wildcat mistakes at critical times.

The result was a 20-13 Rio Rancho victory, the Rams’ first of the year, sealed by Braxton Padilla’s interception with roughly a minute to go in the fourth quarter.

A work of art it wasn’t, but Rio Rancho got it done and improved to a 1-2 record.

“Any win, especially in Clovis, is a great win. So we’ll take it for sure,” Rams head coach David Howes said. “We’ve just been growing every week and we were looking for improvement tonight and I think we found it. Our defense stepped up when it had to and offense moved the ball when it needed to.”

Clovis High had its chances, but coughed it up at the worst times, and for the most part failed to capitalize when knocking on Rio Rancho’s door.

“I thought our mistakes were in the red zone, and that’s something we’ve harped on all year,” Clovis head coach Cal Fullerton said. “Our goal was when we get it in the red zone to come away with points. I know for sure we had a bad snap and another time, after we caught a pass we fumbled it. So that’s two shots right there when in the red zone we just gave away.”

Clovis actually kept it a close game after a terrible start, which saw the Wildcats consistently moving backward. Their first two plays from scrimmage resulted in intentional grounding and false start penalties, shoving them from their own 33 back to the 14. Clovis eventually punted from its own 24, on fourth-and-19.

Rio Rancho scored on its opening possession, a 60-yard drive that included a 13-yard pass from Isaiah Chavez to Jaylen Morgan and the drive’s clincher, a six-yard scoring pass from Chavez to Ethan Hampsten in the right side of the end zone. Clovis’ Jailen Gallegos was there to provide the coverage, but Hampsten turned around and snagged the pass, making it 6-0. The extra point was no good, but Rio Rancho had reached the scoreboard first, with 8:05 to play in the opening quarter.

Late in that quarter, Clovis scored its first home points of the season. The drive, beginning from Rio Rancho’s 40 because the Rams had to punt from their own 14, was energized on its first play by DeMarco Fitch’s 28-yard run down the left sideline. Three plays later Clovis faced third-and-1 from the Rio Rancho 3, and after Wright first leapt over diving Rams defenders to get the first down, he jogged the rest of the way into the end zone. Jose Mendoza’s extra point gave Clovis a 7-6 lead with 54.3 left in the first.

Clovis’ best chance to pad its lead before halftime came during the second quarter, when the Wildcats drove from their own 35 to deep inside Rio Rancho territory, thanks in large part to a Harris pass over the middle to Jaden Phillips that covered 22 yards with mostly yards after the catch.

That play moved Clovis to the 12, and the Wildcats were on the 7 when a botched snap resulted in a turnover.

Clovis, though, still led 7-6 until early in the third quarter when Rio Rancho marched 54 yards on its opening second-half possession for a touchdown. Clovis’ defense was close to holding, forcing the Rams into a third-and-11 from the Wildcat 28. But Chavez threw a touchdown pass to Jeremy Rotert, then evaded several Clovis defenders to rush for the two-point conversion, making the score 14-7 with 8:54 left in the third.

Clovis answered on its next possession, starting at its own 42 after a Fitch kickoff return. After moving to Rio Rancho’s 46, a 39-yard pass from Harris to Fitch was followed by a seven-yard Wright touchdown run. The extra point was no good, and the score remained 14-13 Rams.

Rio Rancho still clung to that lead early in the fourth quarter, facing a fourth-and-nine at Clovis’ 20 when junior quarterback Isaiah Chavez flung a pass toward the right end zone, looking for junior receiver Tyrese Watson. Clovis High’s Montez Wright was on Watson, providing solid coverage, but Watson leapt up and hauled in the pass for the touchdown. The extra point was no good, but Rio Rancho had a full touchdown’s lead with 10:33 to play in the fourth.

Clovis drove from its own 32 to Rio Rancho’s 7, thanks mostly to a dump-off pass from Chance Harris to running back Andrew Jaramillo, who rumbled along the left side of the field. Clovis had been at the Rams 46, but Jaramillo’s rumble got the Wildcats to the 7 with less than seven minutes to go.

An offensive pass interference penalty pushed Clovis back 15 yards, a sack by Rio Rancho’s Jackson Tewalt forced the Wildcats back 12 more, and a sack by the Rams’ Jeramiah Esquibel knocked Clovis back 10 more, forcing the ’Cats to punt from the 44.

Still, Clovis wasn’t out of it. After Rio Rancho ended up having to punt and was called for interfering with Wright’s fair catch at the 35, the Wildcats went back to work at midfield with 2:22 remaining. Clovis managed to reach Rio Rancho’s 39 before Harris, looking right sideline, was picked off by Padilla.

“I just tried to play it very good,” Padilla said. “I knew where he was going to throw it ... and I just read that perfectly.”

Padilla returned the interception to Clovis’ 32, and the Rams were just a few running plays and kneeldowns away from victory No. 1.

“Great win by us,” Padilla said. “We deserved it.”

Clovis now moves on to three straight games against Lubbock teams.

“We’ve just got to get tougher,” Fullerton said. “We’re not a very tough group right now and we’ve got to get a little nastiness to us.”