Rams not worried about playoffs - yet

RUIDOSO — With a win on Friday night at rival Lovington, Portales High’s football team will complete this abbreviated, COVID-affected spring football season with a perfect 4-0 record.

That leaves open the possibility of playing for a state championship with the New Mexico Activities Association ostensibly looking to match the top two teams in each class during a “bowl week” scenario in early April.

As far as PHS coach Jaime Ramirez is concerned, though, that game might as well be a year off. The Rams, he said, have their attention squarely focused on the Wildcats.

“Don’t talk to me about playoffs,” he said Saturday after Portales throttled Ruidoso 45-10 on the road, its third consecutive lopsided victory. “Lovington is the game of the week. We just want to be 1-0 after Friday night.”

Portales made short work of the winless (0-3) Warriors, jumping out to a 14-0 first-quarter lead and never looking back.

Senior quarterback Baylor Diaz was in on all but one of the Rams’ seven touchdowns, throwing for three scores and running for three more. Adrian Ontiveros caught two of the scoring passes and Dason Davis, who ran a punt back 59 yards in the opening stanza, hauled in the other one, also a 59-yard play.

“We played pretty good for the most part,” Ramirez said. “I thought we won all three phases of the game.”

Diaz had scoring runs of 5, 19 and 6 yards. The two TD passes to Ontiveros both came in the third period and covered 11 and 51 yards, respectively.

“Offensively, we took some steps in the right direction,” Ramirez said. “Defensively, we played good the whole game, and our special teams were much better this week than they have been.”

Lovington comes into the contest at 2-1, with wins over Ruidoso and Hobbs before losing last Friday to Roswell Goddard.

“It’s always been a rivalry game between us and Lovington,” Ramirez said. “They’re a good football team, and well-coached. It’s an important game for both teams.”