Rams handle Dons to move to 2-1

LAS VEGAS, N.M. — Sophomore Baylor Diaz ran wild in a 36-0 Rams shutout of West Las Vegas Friday night. Diaz had a pair of long first-quarter rushing touchdowns to set the tone for a Portales offense that rushed for 206 yards on the night.

"Baylor's a stud, but we knew that all along," Rams coach Jaime Ramirez said. "We've been waiting for him to a have a big breakout game, and I thought he did a great job on both sides of the ball tonight. Overall, we had a lot of guys step up for us."

Due to torrential rains before kickoff, Ramirez explained that all of the footballs were wet, which really limited what his Rams (2-1) could do, as far as throwing the ball.

Nonetheless, Diaz and company had no problem finding their footing en route to the end zone in this one.

Diaz opened up the Rams' second drive of the night with a 69-yard scamper on a misdirection handoff, putting the Rams ahead, 6-0.

He then took the fourth play of the next drive 36 yards to the house, after bouncing off of tackler after tackler.

And while the Ram offense slowed down in the second quarter, it didn't matter. Portales' defense left West Las Vegas (1-2) with nowhere to run, as the Dons gained just 24 yards on 30 carries for the night.

A Ram fumble on their first possession gave WLV a chance to strike first, setting up shop at the Portales 38. However, Dons quarterback John Balizan fell down on second-and-10 and lost 10 yards, before he had to recover a bad snap on third-and-long that lost another 15 yards - forcing the Dons to punt it away.

Following Portales first score, Balizan threw a pass on third-and-3 from his own 39 that was picked off by Hassan Howard, setting up the Rams' second score.

"Our defense sets the tone for us," Ramirez explained. "We rally around them, and we have the mentality that we can stop anybody."

But while it appeared that the Rams would have a repeat of last week, in which the offense stalled after three quick scores, that would not be the case on Friday.

Portales put together a six-play, 79-yard drive midway through the third period, as a Romeo Gbassagee 1-yard plunge extend the Ram lead to 22-0. Urioste then called his own number of the next drive, going up the sidelines 43 yards for his first of back-to-back scores. Urioste himself had 97 yards on a game-high 14 carries.

"It was definitely a much better second half than second quarter, for sure," Ramirez said. "Due to the conditions (calming down after half), we opened up the passing game and that set up our scores. We didn't have any problems snapping, like we did the last couple of weeks. If we can work on that snapping, we can be a real dangerous team."

The Rams continue their string of road games Friday night at Goddard.