Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Rams hoping to return from long trek across state with first title since 2016.
Kellan Hightower returns an interception 37 yards for the touchdown to give the Rams a 19-0 lead in the second quarter of Saturday's Class 4A semifinal at Lovington. Portales moves on to a state title matchup at Bloomfield on Saturday.
PORTALES — When Portales High takes on top-seeded, unbeaten Bloomfield in Saturday’s 1 p.m. Class 4A state football championship game at Bloomfield, Rams coach Jaime Ramirez said the teams will be strikingly similar in style.
“They’re a very good football team,” Ramirez said Monday of the Bobcats (12-0). “They’re aggressive and fast, and they’re solid on defense and offense.
“To be honest, they’re a lot like we are.”
Bloomfield was the 4A runnerup last year, losing in the finals at Taos 14-7. Coach Bob Allcorn said the Bobcats return a lot of experience from that team, and it’s shown with a dominating season.
“First and foremost, it’s an honor to be playing in a game of this magnitude,” he said. “The kids have worked hard to get here.
“We know Portales is definitely going to be a tough, tough opponent. They’ve got outstanding players all over the field.”
While the second-seeded Rams (11-1) had relatively little trouble dispatching district rival Lovington 26-7 in Saturday’s semifinal round, the Bobcats had probably their toughest test of the season in outlasting No. 4 seed Grants 48-41 at home.
It was good for his team to face a stiff challenge before the finals, Allcorn said. Bloomfield’s closest game prior to that was a 47-27 win over Ruidoso in the quarterfinal round of the playoffs.
“It was big for us to win that kind of game, after being in control of most of the others,” said Allcorn, a 1982 Bloomfield graduate whose squad has scored at least 40 points in every game, save for a 32-7 victory at Hope Christian in Week 5.
The Bobcats earned homefield advantage — and thus don’t have to make the approximately 400-mile cross-state trip — by virtue of the fact they traveled to Portales the last time the teams met in the the 2008 Class 3A semifinals, a 42-26 Rams victory that set up a championship win the following week over Lovington.
Ramirez said the team will leave around 9 a.m. on Friday, then stop in Albuquerque for a practice and a meal before continuing the journey to Bloomfield.
Top players for Bloomfield are senior quarterback Vincent Marquez, senior slotback-linebacker Kenyon Mosley, junior tight end Tomas Gonzales and senior right end Noah Gurule.
Marquez, who moved from Clovis to Bloomfield during his eighth grade year, has thrown for nearly 3,000 yards this season in sparking the Bobcats’ potent offense.
“They’ve had a good season,” Rams senior wide receiver-safety Kellan Hightower said. “No. 84 (Gurule) is one of their best receivers, and they also have a couple of good running backs. But I feel like if we do what we’re supposed to do, we can come out with a win.”
This is first time Bloomfield has gone through a regular season undefeated since accomplishing the feat in 1976, Allcorn said. The Bobcats’ only previous state title came in 1966.
Ramirez, seeking his second state title at PHS after winning the 2016 4A crown, said Bloomfield is easily among the best teams PHS has played this season.
“Goddard is definitely the best team we’ve seen,” said Ramirez, referring to the team’s only loss, a 44-12 setback to the Class 5A semifinalist Rockets on Sept. 13 in Roswell. “But (Bloomfield) is definitely one of the best teams we’ve seen in 4A.”
