Rams hope to ground Rockets

PORTALES — While it can certainly be said for any given opponent, being a disciplined football team is key. For Portales, tonight is certainly no exception.

The Rams (2-1) travel to Roswell to take on Goddard (2-0-1) at 7, where they’ll face a run-heavy team that plays tight formations.

“They’re a high percentage of run versus pass,” Rams coach Jaime Ramirez explained. “You know what you’re getting when you’re playing Goddard. They’re in double tight, double wing most of the time — that’s their favorite formation.”

Ramirez says his defense will have to watch its keys and make sure it gets alignments and assignments correct.

Defensively, the Rockets show a variety of things. Ramirez believes that Goddard runs a base 4-3 defense, but the Rockets frequently change into either a 3-4 or a 5-2, as well.

“That’s all predicated, from what I can tell, on down and distance,” Ramirez said. “Sometimes, they’re just playing with their alignments. I think they have a philosophy on defense that motion causes commotion. They’re all over the place. They send high heat, and they’re a high-pressure defense.”

Ramirez, per usual, wants to establish the run and then create balance on offense. However, he says that he’ll add some new plays this week to neutralize some of the things that Goddard’s defense will try to throw at them.

And while Goddard may be a 5A school playing at home, it doesn’t concern Ramirez too much. He says that his team sets goals that it sticks to every week, whether it’s against a larger school, smaller school or fellow 4A opponent.

At any rate, a win against a larger program would certainly be a confidence-booster, much like last week’s 36-0 blowout victory at 3A West Las Vegas.

“With our returning veterans, they know how our play should be, because it’s been the same since they’ve been here,” Ramirez explained. “With the other guys that hadn’t been playing, those guys kind of felt like, ‘Hey, this is what it’s supposed to be — when we do things right.’

“Not that we did everything perfect against West Las Vegas, but, the end result was we got better as the game progressed and the kids kept their motors. Right now, to me, we’ve only played about two-and-a-half good quarters of football in that last game. If we can get it to where we’re playing four good quarters of what we call Ram football, then I think everything takes care of itself.”