Rams seek bounce-back at Academy

Portales High’s football team is hopeful that a week off helps the Rams get back on track.

Beaten 48-18 by St. Pius in their most recent outing on Oct. 11 at Steve Loy Family Foundation Stadium, PHS is looking for a bounce-back in a 1 p.m. District 2-4A kickoff on Saturday at Albuquerque Academy.

Rams coach Jaime Ramirez said the bye week was beneficial.

“We’re feeling better (physically),” he said. “It helped getting the guys healed up, for sure.”

The Chargers (3-5, 1-3) are coming off a 22-9 loss at Friday night at Silver, a team Portales handled relatively well in a 21-6 win on Oct. 4. At the same time, Academy dealt Manzano – a team which beat PHS 40-20 earlier – a 57-26 shellacking on Oct. 12.

“I think anybody in our district can beat anybody,” Ramirez said. “It’s just a matter of who’s playing good that night.”

Sophomore quarterback William Braun has completed 62 percent of his passes for 1,960 yards and 19 touchdowns for Academy, while junior Ryan Williams leads the team’s rushing attack with three TDs and 306 yards on 71 carries.

Top receivers are senior Jett Galles with 44 catches for 788 yards and junior Gage Conway with 35 receptions for 663 yards. They’ve combined for 12 receiving TDs.

“They run multiple formations on offense,” Ramirez said. “Defensively, they play both man(-to-man) and zone (in the secondary).”

The Rams, currently ranked sixth in 4A, finish the season at home next week against Chaparral (3-6, 2-3).

Cats host second-ranked Hawks – Say one thing for Clovis High’s season – there haven’t been any patsies on the schedule.

The Wildcats bring an 0-8 record (0-4 District 3-6A) into Friday’s 7 p.m. home finale against Centennial, and the Las Cruces- based Hawks (8-0, 4-0) may be the best team they’ve seen yet.

Centennial is ranked second in Class 6A by MaxPreps, behind only La Cueva. All eight previous opponents for Clovis are in the top 14 in 21-team 6A.

First-year Cats coach Stan Hodges knows his squad’s work is cut out, adding that the Cats will potentially be without three starters due to injury on Friday, including two who go both ways.

“They’re explosive,” he said of the Hawks, who have outscored their opponents 346-128. “They like to run the ball. They’ve got a lot of speed on offense and defense.”

Hodges couldn’t name any particular standouts. “They’ve got 22 starters, and they all stand out,” he quipped.

The one area where the Hawks have may be a tad vulnerable is on defense. All eight foes have tallied at least 12 points, including five with 27 or more.

“Defensively, they’re not really that big,” Hodges said. “But you can tell they’re strong and they’re pretty danged fast.”

He’s hopeful the Cats, coming off a 63-8 loss at Hobbs on Friday, can put something together on offense.

“Schematically, when you look at it, I think we’ve got a chance to move the ball and have some offensive production,” he said.

The Cats’ only points on Friday came when senior Tanner Fuller forced a fumble and Shawn Schiller returned it 35 yards to the end zone in the second quarter. Sophomore quarterback Javier Jimenez added a 2-point conversion run.