Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Portales quarterback Baylor Diaz fires a long pass Saturday afternoon during the Rams' Class 4A semifinal game at Lovington. Portales won 26-7.
LOVINGTON — Different field.
Bigger stakes.
Same result.
Wromiah Gbassagee ran for three touchdowns, and the Portales defense forced turnovers all day as the Rams dominated Lovington 26-7 in the Class 4A semifinal round on the blue turf of Brian Urlacher Field.
The Rams (11-1) never trailed in picking up their eighth-straight win, and will head to Bloomfield for a 1 p.m. Saturday Class 4A title matchup. The Bobcats rallied in the closing minutes to top upset-minded Grants 48-41.
How do the Rams get ready for the long drive and the battle with Class 4A’s top seed?
“Same way we prepare every wee,” Portales coach Jaime Ramirez said. “We want to get better this week. We want to stop what they do well, establish what we do well and play well on special teams.”
Saturday marked the Rams’ fifth consecutive appearance in the state semifinal round, and this marks their second time in that stretch reaching the title game.
They got there with a heavy dose of Gbassagee, who scored on a 1-yard run midway through the first quarter and a 4-yard jaunt on the first play of the second quarter. Both scoring runs were set up by long plays just before — a 47-yard Gbassagee run in the first quarter, and a 32-yard Jalen Allen reception late in the first quarter.
“I thought we ran the ball well, threw the ball well and played great defense,” Ramirez said. “Our special teams really did a good job.”
The win was Portales’ second of the season over the Wildcats. The Rams won 35-13 to close out the regular season and claim the District 3/4-4A title.
Senior Kellan Hightower put an early exclamation point on the contest. Just over a minute into the second quarter, his 33-yard pick-six made it 19-0, and the Wildcats never got closer than that.
Lovington quarterback Casey Perez had come into the game with just one pick in 253 attempts. The Rams intercepted three of his 38 attempts Saturday, with another Hightower interception and a pick from Hagen Rains.
“I think the pick-six was the key,” Ramirez said. “Every interception was great because it changed the momentum back to our side.”
Portales last appeared in a title game in 2016, when it beat Robertson 43-13 for its first title as a Class 4A school.
