Warriors pull away from Rams

RUIDOSO — Even two spectacular plays by Eric Ramirez couldn’t save the Portales High football team on Friday night.

The senior wide receiver put the Rams in front with a 68-yard TD reception from sophomore quarterback Devin Diaz in the first quarter. He gave PHS the lead again when he returned the second-half kickoff 66 yards to the house.

Other than that, the Rams could muster precious little in dropping a 28-13 Class 4A District 3/4 decision to Ruidoso.

“It was a pretty good ballgame,” PHS coach Jaime Ramirez said. “We just didn’t play very well in the fourth quarter, I guess.”

Senior running back Braxton Hall scored on runs of 3 yards in the second quarter, 6 yards in the third and 1 yard in the fourth for the Warriors (4-4, 1-0 district).

The kickoff return by Ramirez staked PHS (2-6, 0-1) to a 13-7 lead, but his extra-point kick was blocked and the Rams couldn’t muster anything else the rest of the way.

“We’re just going to have to go in on Monday and try to get better,” Ramirez said.

Ruidoso fumbled the ball away on its first two plays of the night from scrimmage. The long pass play to Ramirez came on the first play after a punt.

Hall’s first score capped an 80-yard drive for the Warriors. His second put them ahead for good and finished off a 64-yard march.

Ruidoso was then successful with an onside kick and took that possession 46 yards, with junior wide receiver Cameron Pritchett hauling in a 25-yard scoring pass from senior quarterback Griffin Hooker.

The Warriors worked another successful onside kick, but went three-and-out. But they forced Portales to do the same and then went 52 yards for Hall’s third tally early in the final period.

Portales plays its regular-season home finale against top-ranked Lovington on Friday night. The Wildcats trounced Silver 48-16 in Friday’s other district opener.