Rams crush Sartans, prepare for Lovington

CLOVIS - To be honest, there wasn't much doubt about the outcome of Friday's Portales High-St. Pius Class 4A first-round playoff game.

Still, if the Rams were looking ahead to a possible rematch at District 4-4A rival Lovington in this week's quarterfinals, it didn't show.

Portales committed six turnovers on offense, but its defense picked off Sartans senior quarterback Alejandro Sapien five times en route to a 48-3 victory. The contest was moved to Clovis High's Leon Williams Stadium due to the city-wide water outage earlier in the week in Portales.

Right now, Lovington and Portales may well be two of the better teams in 4A. But after last week's 20-14 Wildcats victory at Greyhound Stadium, Lovington (4-6) was given a fourth seed and a first-round bye while the Rams (9-2), ranked second before that game, dropped all the way to fifth.

"I'm looking forward to it," said junior slotback/free safety Tommy Lopez, who had two interceptions, a 30-yard return of a punt blocked by junior Layton Faust for a score and a 24-yard touchdown reception from sophomore QB Paxton Culpepper. "They beat us in district, which was real disappointing, but I think it'll be a good game."

The Rams' first turnover came when senior running back Emmanuel Diahn fumbled on the second play from scrimmage, but Lopez got his first INT later in the period and Culpepper promptly tossed a 37-yard scoring pass to junior Zane Mayberry on the next play.

Neither team could stop turning the ball over in the first half. In fact, at one point there were giveaways on three consecutive plays.

Junior Braden Beck's 30-yard interception return gave the Rams, who won a regular-season meeting from the Sartans 32-0 in Albuquerque, a 13-0 advantage midway through the opening stanza.

"We did good in spurts," Rams coach Jaime Ramirez said. "But we played great defense and our special teams played well."

The only thing preventing another shutout was a 19-yard field goal by Sartans junior Zachary Roth late in the half, a score set up when Mayberry lost a fumble inside the 20 after a pass reception.

Diahn, who has seen limited action for several weeks due to ankle issues, fumbled twice but rushed for 70 yards on just seven carries, including a 9-yard TD tote in the fourth-quarter. Meantime, sophomore Kaidyn Cordova added 69 yards on the ground and a pair of short TD runs.

On defense, the Rams were all over the Sartans, seeded 12th in the 12-team field, limiting them to a minus-8 net rushing and 84 yards overall.

"When you watch the film, they usually do the same things, and you just read it," Lopez said. "We just kept turning the ball over (early). But the defense played great and allowed only three points."

Including two sacks of Sapien, the Sartans finished the contest with 14 rushing plays for negative yardage. They had only one run all night - a nine-yard carry by junior Moosie Neal late in the second quarter - which covered more than four yards.

Ramirez attributed at least some of the teams' turnover problems to the chilly conditions, assuring that the late change in venue was no factor for his squad.

"They (Sartans) had to travel a long ways," he said. "We just had a short trip, so to me it was almost like just another home game."

Ramirez and Lopez both said they were appreciative to CHS for the last-minute use of its facility.

"I know they really helped us a lot, and I'm really grateful to them," Lopez said.

Culpepper went down with a third-quarter knee injury which at the time appeared to be serious, but Ramirez said late Friday night that he's hopeful the QB will be ready for this week's clash at Lovington. In his absence, junior Devin Diaz filled in and helped the Rams to their final three scores.

Also, junior running back Zach Radloff sat out the game after contracting strep throat earlier in the week. Ramirez also expects he will be ready for this week's tilt as well.