Rams win late with goalline stand, 99-yard drive

LOS LUNAS — With their perfect early-season record on the line, Portales High’s football team came up with a late defensive stand and an even more stunning scoring drive in the closing seconds on Friday night.

The Rams held Valencia on four plays inside the 10-yard line, taking over at their own 1 with 1:50 to go, then covered the 99 yards in seven plays to pull out a 34-28 victory over the Jaguars and improve to 4-0 for the season.

Rams coach Jaime Ramirez said he would have been happy with Friday’s effort, win or lose.

“Either way, it was a good ballgame,” Ramirez said, adding: “But it’s nice to be on the winning side.”

Within the first three plays following the goalline stand, sophomore quarterback Paxton Culpepper completed passes of 41 yards to junior Zane Mayberry and 33 yards to junior Braden Beck to move the Rams into scoring position. Culpepper then kept for four yards and hit junior Andru Ontiveros for seven yards and a first down at the Valencia 13.

Following an incomplete pass and a Jaguars offside penalty, Paxton took the ball in from eight yards out for his second scoring run of the game with 14 seconds to go.

Valencia was unable to generate a first down following the kickoff.

“I like the way we battled,” Ramirez said. “We did not play a clean ballgame. We didn’t play great on offense, and defensively we were bending, but we got that goalline stand (at the end).”

Their were four lead changes in the second half. Valencia scored first for an 8-0 lead, but the Rams got touchdown passes from Culpepper to sophomore Tommy Lopez and Beck to lead 14-8 at the quarter.

It stayed that way until the third period, when sophomore Kaidyn Cordova’s 2-yard run capped a 68-yard drive following the second-half kickoff. Valencia, though, got the next two scores, including an 80-yard interception return early in the final stanza for a 22-21 lead.

Culpepper’s 2-yard TD run capped a 60-yard drive and put the Rams back in front, but the Jaguars regained a 28-27 edge when senior QB Rey Garcia culminated a 72-yard drive by going in from 9 yards. That set up the wild finish.

The Rams return to the Albuquerque area this week, facing St. Pius in a 1 p.m. kickoff on Saturday at Community Stadium.

Carlsbad 55, Clovis 14 — At Carlsbad, the Cavemen kept the winless Wildcats reeling as senior running back Eli Asay ran for three touchdowns in a first half that ended with the hosts leading 41-7.

Also contributing to the deficit were a blocked punt which set up a TD and a fumble return for a score.

The Cats (0-4) started reasonably well, moving the ball effectively on their first drive and then tying the score 7-7 on the first play of their second possession when junior running back Kash Roberts broke off a 73-yard TD run.

“We came out well the first couple of possessions,” first-year Clovis coach Andrew McCraw said. “We moved the ball at times. Defensively, we didn’t tackle well — we kept going inside when they were going outside.

“We gave them great field position and they were really tough to tackle. We’ve just got to keep plugging away at it.”

CHS scored the only points in the third quarter when Roberts converted a fumble recovery by the defense into a 2-yard scoring run.

The Cavemen (2-2) tallied on the first play of the final period, then capped off the scoring on a 55-yard punt return touchdown by senior Uriel Mendoza.

Clovis is back at Leon Williams on Friday for a 7 p.m. kickoff against also-winless Eldorado (0-4), which lost at unbeaten Piedra Vista 46-7 on Thursday night.

“They’ve struggled a little bit, but they’re hungry for a win just like we are,” McCraw said. “We’ve got to bring our ‘A’ game. It’s going to be physical and (Eldorado) coach (Charlie) Dotson will have those guys prepared.”