Rams make use of bye week

PORTALES - If they had a choice, most football coaches would hardly opt to have a bye in the second week of the season.

For the Portales High Rams, though, it may have come at the right time, coach Jaime Ramirez said, after dropping the season opener on Aug. 21 at Hope Christian 28-14. They now play nine consecutive weeks to end the regular campaign, beginning with Friday's 7 p.m. home opener against West Las Vegas at Greyhound Stadium.

"I definitely think we've gotten better, for sure," Ramirez said. "For us, I think we needed that bye week. We feel that we've made some strides (since the opener)."

In the Class 3A Dons, PHS is taking on a squad which is off to a 2-0 start and has racked up 80 points, although both Class 5A Highland (34-8) and Class 2A Santa Rosa (46-28) are 0-2.

The top players for West Las Vegas so far have been freshman quarterback C.J. Perea and senior running back Damian Gallegos.

"They're probably a 60-40 team, throwing about 60 percent of the time," Ramirez said. "They've done a good job. They're a really explosive football team."

He added that the Rams hope to keep pressure on the young signal-caller.

"I think we need to make sure we don't let that quarterback get comfortable," Ramirez underlined. "We want to put them in a position where they're a little more predictable.

"Offensively, we need to have a better command of what we're doing."

Cats hit road to Texas - Coming off a heartbreaking 34-33 loss to El Paso Ysleta at Leon Williams Stadium, Clovis High makes its first road trip of the season on Friday when it faces Frenship at Wolfforth, Texas for a 6 p.m. (MDT) kickoff.

A last-ditch scoring drive set the Wildcats up for a potential game-winning 2-point conversion with 39 seconds left, but the Indians were able to force an incomplete pass as CHS dropped its second game of the season, both at home.

This week's tilt figures to be challenging. The teams met in 2015 and 2016, with the Tigers winning relatively close games both times.

Frenship is coming off a season-opening 28-26 win at home over Lubbock Coronado on Friday.

"They're very athletic," Cats coach Cal Fullerton said. "They've got a good running back and some good receivers. They're one of the better teams we'll play all year."

The quarterback is 6-foot-1, 175-pound senior Chad Pharies. His father, Chet, graduated from CHS and played quarterback and safety for the Cats, and now owns the Carpet Tech cleaning chain.

Fullerton said he had no qualms about going for the win against Yselta.

"I thought we had a pretty good play called," he said. "The ball just didn't bounce our way."

While they have a relatively young squad, Fullerton acknowledged the Cats didn't expect to be 0-2 at this point. The key, he added, is to remain optimistic.

"We're trying to make sure the lockerroom stays together," he said. "Good things will happen when you keep working hard."

Clovis plays its final non-district game next week at Rio Rancho, then has a bye before beginning its six-game Class 6A District 2/5 slate on Sept. 24 at home against La Cueva.