Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Portales High senior receiver Tommy Lopez looks to avoid Las Vegas Robertson defenders after catching a pass from senior quarterback Paxton Culpepper during Friday's scrimmage at the PHS practice field. The Rams open the campaign on Friday night at Roswell Goddard.
Clovis High's John Royal takes an inside handoff from sophomore quarterback Javier Jimenez during Thursday's preseason scrimmage at Leon Williams Stadium. The Wildcats play at Farmington in Friday night's season opener.
Clovis and Portales High's football teams had home scrimmages last week in preparation for Friday night's regular-season openers.
The Wildcats entertained Lovington on Thursday night at Leon Williams Stadium. On Friday night, the Rams hosted a four-team get-together with Las Vegas Robertson, Lubbock Trinity Christian and New Mexico Military at the PHS practice facility which was cut short by lightning.
This week, CHS opens with a cross-state trip to Farmington while the Rams visit Roswell Goddard.
Clovis – During a two-hour scrimmage session, new coach Stan Hodges got his first look at the Cats in a competitive situation, and they took some lumps.
Hodges, who came to CHS after a 30-year career in Texas, knows his squad will be young in a lot of areas. He wants the players to focus on improvement.
"The main thing is we're not trying to be real fancy," said Hodges, who was hired in July after Andrew McCraw accepted a position as an assistant coach at Eastern New Mexico University. "We're trying to focus on fundamentals, attitude, those kind of things. We're trying to create a bond between the players and coaching staff."
Against Lovington, the Cats had their moments. But the defending Class 5A state champions were a tough team to corral with a wide-open style on offense under first-year coach Joshua Bailey.
"Our defense made some big plays for us at the end," Hodges said. "We didn't start strong, but we finished well.
"It took our offensive line a while to get used to the aggressiveness of their defense and our defense a while to get used to the speed of their offense. That team can play – they could beat a lot of teams in Texas."
Hodges said sophomore quarterback Javier Jimenez, junior running back John Royal and junior tackle Ashton Encinias all had solid nights on offense, highlighted by a long touchdown run from Royal. Defensive standouts including senior Kyrese Phillips in the secondary and junior Troy Richter in the defensive line.
The Cats have about a six-hour bus ride one way to Farmington. They'll leave Thursday and spend the night in Albuquerque, then stay in Aztec after Friday night's game before returning to Clovis.
Portales – Lightning brought an early halt to Friday's four-team scrimmage, but the Rams got some good work in.
PHS took on Robertson in its first go-around, then got most of its reps in against NMMI before the weather curtailed things.
Against Robertson, senior quarterback Paxton Culpepper threw a touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Xavier Tarpeh, and also ran the ball in for a score.
Rams coach Jaime Ramirez said the team's offensive line and defense played relatively well in the scrimmage, adding that senior running backs Dallas Lozano and Joel Lujan were also effective.
"There's definitely things we need to improve on," Ramirez said. "But (the scrimmages) went about the way I thought they would."
Friday's opener should be challenging. It's the first time the teams have meet since the Rockets posted a 44-12 victory at Greyhound Stadium in 2019.
"Goddard's good," Ramirez said. "I watched them scrimmage against Hobbs, and I thought they were pretty even. We expect them to be a tough opponent."
