Rams cruise to second consecutive blowout victory

RUIDOSO – Really, it’s not supposed to be this easy.

Portales High’s football team scored its second consecutive lopsided win to open the season with a 54-0 victory over Ruidoso on Friday. The game ended late in the third quarter on the 50-point mercy rule.

Through two weeks, the Rams have outscored their opponents 99-0 and barely worked up a sweat. After going on the road twice, PHS now plays five of its next six games at home, with a bye mixed in.

Coach Jaime Ramirez said he didn’t anticipate such a dominating performance.

“To be honest, I was (surprised by the margin),” Ramirez said. “On film, I saw that they played pretty decent at times (in a 42-0 opening loss to Class 5A Gadsden). They looked a little faster on film.”

Junior quarterback Paxton Culpepper threw for three touchdowns and added a 25-yard scoring run. His TD tosses covered 30 yards to senior Andru Ontiveros in the first quarter, and 35 and 10 yards to junior Tommy Lopez and 40 yards to senior Braden Beck in the second stanza, staking Portales to a 34-0 halftime lead.

Seniors Zach Radloff and Lazarus Fitts went in on runs of 15 and 7 yards, respectively, to finish out the scoring. Senior Toby Standifer went 6-of-7 on PAT kicks.

Defensively, senior Devin Diaz had two pass interceptions while senior Layton Faust added a fumble recovery.

“We had a good game plan going in, and the kids executed it well,” Ramirez said.

Ramirez wants his team not to get too far ahead of itself as it prepares to host West Las Vegas in a 7 p.m. kickoff on Friday at Greyhound Stadium. The Dons (1-1) dropped a 40-27 decision at Dexter on Friday.

“We’re just focused on West Las Vegas this week,” Ramirez said. “Everything else will take care of itself. We’re just trying to focus on getting better each and every day.”

Canyon 43, Clovis 15 (Thursday) – The Wildcats made a game of it for most of a half before the Eagles pulled away at Kimbrough Stadium.

Clovis (0-2) pulled to 29-15 with about 3 ½ minutes remaining in the second quarter on an 89-yard touchdown run by senior Kash Roberts, but the Eagles – playing their season opener – found the end zone again just before halftime and outscored the Cats 16-0 over the final two stanzas.

“We played really hard,” Cats coach Andrew McCraw said. “We’d get them in third-and-long (situations), and we couldn’t get off the field.”

CHS has been outscored 84-28 by two quality opponents to start the season, but McCraw says there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

“When we do things right, we’re really a pretty good football team,” he said.

Canyon scored early, but junior Dakota Scott blocked the Eagles’ PAT kick and Clovis senior Jett Stone returned it all the way for a 2-point defensive conversion. Stone then scored on a 2-yard quarterback keeper early in the second frame to cut Canyon’s lead to 13-8.

Senior Christian McGuire scored on a pair of short second-half runs and the Eagles also added a field goal.

Freshman Javi Jimenez completed 5-of-8 passes for 78 yards backing up Stone, who also caught two balls for 37 yards. Meantime, Roberts finished the contest with 10 carries for 111 yards.

Clovis returns to Leon Williams Stadium on Friday for a 7 p.m. kickoff against Canyon Randall.