Rams dominate early in rout

PORTALES - For Portales senior Anthony Montoya, Christmas came on a March night at Greyhound Stadium. Fortunately, Montoya knew just where to return his present.

A 61-yard fumble return that surprised everybody, up to and including Montoya, proved to be an early exclamation point in Portales' penalty-riddled 34-6 over Dexter Friday at Greyhound Stadium.

The game was never in doubt after the Rams (2-0), who didn't even receive the opening kickoff, opened a 20-0 lead after 11 minutes of action and just four offensive plays.

Portales made quick work of a short field provided by a Joshua Reyes interception, with Baylor Diaz finding Jude Urioste for a 21-yard scoring toss on a second-down play. After a lengthy Dexter drive ended with a missed field goal, Dason Davis eluded a handful of Demon tacklers to turn a short screen pass into a 65-yard romp.

The back-breaker came just two plays later on a Dexter second-and-10, when Dexter's Tyler Brisco found a receiving lane up the right sideline. What looked like a routine tackle by Luciano Rodriguez actually knocked the ball loose. By the time anybody realized the ball found its way to Montoya, the senior had a 10-yard headstart down the sideline.

"Perfectly in my hands," Montoya said, "took it to the house."

Portales coach Jaime Ramirez admitted he'd have to look at film of the play later, and only recognized a turnover had taken place when Montoya raced past him.

"It was pretty outstanding," Ramirez said of the 20-0 first. "Good execution, good job of Baylor throwing the ball. Jude made an outstanding catch, and Baylor threw a dart. Then we threw that fast to Dason, and he made a heck of a play to turn it into a touchdown. And how about that play by Anthony? I couldn't see if he stripped it or picked it up off the ground; it happened so quick."

Dexter coach Arturo Duran said the game came down to Portales making plays when it had a chance, and the Demons failing to respond.

"We shot ourselves in the foot in the first half," Duran said, "and they capitalized. They're a good team, they're a good program. We never could rebound."

Soon after that, the penalties took over, and there wasn't another score until Ethan Conrow crossed the goal line on a 3-yard run just after the third-quarter horn sounded.

The teams combined for 24 flags and 205 yards in penalties - 125 yards for Portales, 80 for the Demons.

"We couldn't get back into a rhythm offensively in the second quarter," Ramirez said. "One step forward, two steps back. Penalties really stopped us."

Dexter, which had a litany of high snaps and other miscues, netted just 4 positive yards on the rush to drag down what was a solid passing attack by Manny Fuentez and Juan Fuentes. The latter quarterback, with the former suffering an injury, led Dexter on a 14-play, 80-yard drive to wipe out Portales' shutout bid with a 7-yard Joshua Duran reception. The drive accounted for six of Dexter's 12 first downs and nearly 40% of its offensive yardage.

Both teams are back in action Saturday, with Portales visiting Ruidoso and Dexter facing Tucumcari.