Rio Rancho tops Clovis

RIO RANCHO — Sophomore running back Zach Vigil carried the ball 28 times for 167 yards, scoring four times on runs of 4, 1, 5 and 1 yard, as No. 7 Rio Rancho beat visiting No. 6 Clovis for the ninth year in a row, 48-28.

The Wildcats (2-1) surprisingly never got into the Rams’ red zone, but made up for it with four touchdowns covering 60 or more yards.

The Rams (1-2), going 7 for 7 in the red zone, also had senior quarterback Isaiah Chavez surpass the century mark on the ground — until he took a 15-yard loss while running out the clock to end the game.

Vigil started the scoring by capping a seven-play, 62-yard first-quarter drive on a 4-yard run. Bailey Siverts added the point-after, and the Rams led 7-0 when the first period ended.

The Rams scored the first two TDs of the second quarter on Vigil’s first 1-yard run and a 19-yard touchdown pass from Chavez to Nick Rotert. Siverts added the PAT and Chavez tossed to Tyrese Watson for a 2-point conversion, respectively, after those TDs.

Clovis got the first two of its four long TDs in the second period: QB Chance Harris threw a pass to an all-alone Malik Phillips, which went for a 65-yarder, and then Harris galloped 80 yards through the Rams’ defense.

At halftime, the Rams held a 22-14 lead.

The teams traded the next four scores: Vigil went in from 5 yards out and Harris found Phillips open in the secondary again, this time for a 60-yard TD pass, and it was 28-22.

Chavez hooked up with Watson on a fade route, covering 7 yards, and the ’Cats countered with an 88-yard TD pass from Harris to Jeston Webskowski — but those were the Wildcats’ final touchdowns of the game.

The Rams scored the only points in the fourth quarter, on a 20-yard Chavez to Rotert connection and a 1-yard run by Vigil.

The Rams’ defense — albeit giving up those four long touchdowns — did its job for the most part, as Clovis managed only a minus-14 rushing yards in the second half to go with Harris’s 163 passing yards.

Eleventh-year Rams head coach David Howes, who’d seen his team blow a 28-point lead at home in his team’s opener, was asked what he was happier with, other than a W.

“I think playing four quarters,” he said. “Watching us take care of the football (the Rams didn’t turn the ball over); I just thought that looked like good, sound football.”

Howes is now 10-1 vs. the Wildcats, who last beat the Rams in 2010. This is the 16th year in a row the schools have met.

The Wildcats now get ready for three weeks of Texas, with Lubbock schools on the schedule each of the next three Fridays — at home Friday against Monterey, Sept. 20 at Coronado and Sept. 27 at Cooper.