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Rams seeking district title

Staff writer

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Two games are left in the regular season, but if Portales wants to retain its Class 4-4A district title for another season, it’s imperative that the Rams beat the newest member of their district: The Moriarty Fighting Pintos, in what will essentially be the district championship game at 7 p.m. today.

With both teams ranked in the top four in Class 4A, the game should come down to which defense can shut down the other’s high-powered offense. Moriarty (8-0, 2-0 district) averages 43.5 points a contest while giving up just 8.75 points a game. Portales (7-1, 2-0 ) is right behind the Pintos, averaging 40.1 points per game and allowing just 13.1 points.

“They run a Wing-T offense,” defensive coordinator Victor Lopez said. “It has a traditional look with running backs and tight ends but it’s a throwback with the guards pulling and using misdirection for an advantage. It looks a lot like Eastern’s offense, just without the option plays.

“They run belly (fullback inside run) and lots of sweeps. It’s in the same family tree as Santa Rosa’s single-wing offense. They’re a smashmouth team and they’re trying to pound the ball until you make a mistake.”

Moriarty senior Elijah Tapia is the workhorse for his team, as he leads it with 876 rushing yards. In addition to Tapia, juniors Marvin Encinias and Matt Smith have run for 540 and 478 yards, respectively.

“He’s a hard runner,” senior Emilio Lovato said of Tapia. “He likes to run through people and likes to keep moving forward. Our job is that whoever gets to him first hits him hard and takes him down so he knows we’re there.”

The main difference between the teams on offense is the passing game. While both teams rely heavily on the running game, Portales recently has found success airing the ball out. Portales averages 144.5 yards through the air and 260.8 yards on the ground per contest, while Moriarty averages just 35.3 passing yards and 305.3 rushing yards.

“We’ve got to play assignment defense,” coach Jaime Ramirez said. “We need to read our keys and work hard in practice all week. If we do that, we’ll be fine.”

For Portales, running back Darion Ontiveros and quarterback Junior Ramirez will need to continue to run the spread option attack like they’ve done all season. Ontiveros leads the Rams with 1,050 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns on the ground. He’s also caught 12 passes for 238 yards and one touchdown.

Coach Ramirez has a simple game plan: Exploit whatever weakness Moriarty shows.

“When they load the box, we need to take the ball to the perimeter,” Ramirez said. “When they don’t we need to run it inside. So take what they give us. Whatever they give up, we’ll try to take advantage of it. On defense we just try to do our thing and stay disciplined. We see where they like to attack and try to stop that.”

As far as common foes, Portales has the edge regarding the difference in points. Moriarty has outscored the common opponents of St. Michael’s, Espanola Valley and Hope Christian 116-35 while Portales has outscored them 138-22. While that’s nice, Lopez said the team isn’t too focused on those numbers.

“Sure we’ve looked at it,” Lopez said. “But you don’t want to assume they’ll play us the same way as they played the other teams.”