Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Portales sophomore Dason Davis wraps up Moriarty's Pedro Sandoval in Friday's 46-0 win at Greyhound Stadium. The Rams head to Lovington Friday.
PORTALES — Plenty is at stake for Portales Friday night in Lovington. A district championship and a first-round bye are the main rewards.
The best reward, Ram coach Jaime Ramirez said, is to be better Friday than the Rams have been lately. Given the current four-game blowout streak, that’s a pretty tall task.
“All along, we set a goal to get better every game,” Ramirez said. “A district championship is another goal. Hopefully we get a little better Friday, and win a district championship.”
Should Portales (6-3, 2-0) defeat Lovington for the fourth consecutive season and fifth in six seasons, it will have probably have enough going for it to net the No. 1 or No. 2 seed with the District 3/4-4A title, a five-game streak and potentially wins over two district champions.
The second-biggest obstacle facing Portales is a 21-20 loss at St. Pius in September that could end up costing the Rams the top seed. The biggest obstacle, lies about 90 minutes to the south in the Wildcats (5-4, 2-0).
If Lovington wins the district title, runnerup Portales could drop out of the top four and end up playing a first-round game.
“Offensively, they throw the ball around quite a bit; they’re probably 50/50,” Ramirez said. “The quarterback (Casey Perez) is extremely athletic. He likes to improvise, use his feet when he’s pressured out of the pocket.”
Perez has completed 125 of 231 passes for 1,687 yards, with 15 touchdowns against just five picks. In all, 16 different players have caught passes, with six players over 100 yards for the season.
The difficult part, Ramirez said, will be defending the receivers for more than the standard three or four seconds while Perez keeps plays alive.
On defense, Ramirez said, the Wildcats play a 4-3 with two high safeties.
Lovington defeated Moriarty 50-6 at home and Ruidoso 21-14 on the road. The Rams, meanwhile, posted 46-0 and 56-14 wins over the two teams, respectively, as part of a four-game streak where they’ve outscored the opposition 196-21.
All good, but Ramirez figures none of it means much without a win Friday.
“The seeding, it is what it is, and I think it’s a little subjective,” Ramirez said. “There’s not a hierarchy on things like head-to-head and Maxpreps ranking. You can kind of figure out what people would be in the top 12, but I just let that stuff play out. We’ve just got to control what we can, and that’s winning Friday night.”
