Rams stopped short to end marathon night

PORTALES — An 80-minute weather delay. Five fumbles, two of them lost. Five second-half penalties. Missed chances in the red zone.

Indeed, it was an odd night for Portales football in its 2018 season opener against Hope Christian on Friday night.

Quarterback Vince Quezada found Jake Cosper wide open in the flat on third-and-goal for the game’s only touchdown, and the Huskies defense held on for a 10-3 win that put Portales at 0-1 for the first time since 2014.

Whether it be the weather, first-night jitters, inexperience — or a little of each, Portales endured a long night. The Rams rallied in the fourth quarter to force their first overtime battle in 16 years, but it was all for naught. The Huskies, despite plenty of chances for the Rams to take control of the game, held on.

The Rams’ final chance came on a fourth-and-goal from the Hope 10. With nobody open, quarterback Julian Urioste was forced to take off and run. He reached the 2 before Hope defenders swarmed him and denied the goal line.

Huskies coach Gary Beck wasn’t surprised Urioste went with the keeper.

“He was gonna go,” Beck said. “He is a very gifted athlete, he’s just like our quarterback.

“They’re scaring you half the game plan. When the pressure’s on, they tend to revert back to what they do best — and (Urioste’s) a scrambling, running guy. He’s just fantastic, and you pray a lot when he starts rolling. He starts rolling, and our guys start rolling with him, stay disciplined to bring him down. He had a ton of yards throughout the game. But worst case, we would have gone to double-overtime.”

Although Portales controlled the time of possession throughout, and didn’t have trouble gaining yards on several drives, Hope still got it done. An eight-play, 32-yard drive set up a Quezada field goal attempt early in the second quarter.

Quezada, after two bad punts, drilled the 48-yard attempt with plenty of leg to spare, giving the Huskies a 3-0 lead that they’d maintain well into the fourth quarter.

Portales, trailing for the first time all game, responded with a nine-play, 56-yard drive that got as deep as Hope’s 24. But a bad snap on fourth down — one of many Ram miscues — forced Urioste to chase down the ball for a 15-yard loss.

“We just gave up the ball, deep in their territory. Those turnovers really hurt us,” Rams coach Jaime Ramirez explained. “Football is a game of turnovers. Whoever turns over the ball the least amount, usually wins the ballgame.”

The first drive of the second half was stalled by a holding penalty that negated a 25-yard completion to the Huskies 10, and multiple fumbled snaps and penalties meant a punt.

But finally, Portales gave some hope to its fans — perhaps rewarding many of them for standing outside Greyhound Stadium for more than an hour due to lightning strike concerns.

The Rams drove 80 yards in 16 plays, getting to the Hope 4-yard line. And while Urioste’s third and goal pass ended in an incompletion, kicker Lesther Andrade finally got the Rams on the board with a 21-yarder to tie it at 3-3, with 6:19 to play.

Hope had a chance to ice the game in regulation, but the Rams got their hands on another Quezada field goal attempt and it landed short of the crossbar.

Portales won the toss in overtime and deferred to Hope. On third-and-goal from the 7, Quezada rolled right and fournd Cosper in the flat with enough open space to walk it in.

The first three plays canceled each other out — an incompletion, a 4-yard Urioste keeper and a 4-yard loss on an option pitch to Baylor Diaz — to set up the fourth and 10 Hope managed to extinguish.

It was Portales’ first overtime game since beating Tularosa 14-8 in 2002, and its first opening loss since falling 33-20 to Robertson in 2014.

For Ramirez and his young squad, it’s back to the drawing board, as St. Mike’s comes to town next Friday. Nonetheless, despite all of the negative views that could have been taken after this game, Ramirez focused on the positives.

“Well, I just told (the players after the game) that it sucks to lose like this, because they fought so hard,” Ramirez said, “and to not end up getting a victory over a team that I thought we had some missed opportunities (against).

“But, we’re gonna get better, we’re gonna come together as a team. We’re definitely gonna focus on the positives and work on getting better in each and every area that we’re lacking. What can you do? They (played) a hard-fought game.”