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BLACKWATER DRAW — Coming off a bye week, it took the Portales Rams a half to get in sync Friday night.
Once they did, it was all over for St. Michael’s. The Rams, ranked No. 1 in Class 3A, scored on their first four possessions of the second half to overwhelm the Horsemen 35-0 at Greyhound Stadium.
Senior wide receiver-linebacker Brandon Adkins caught two touchdown passes and had an interception in a 21-point third quarter as Portales (4-2) bounced back from a 64-19 loss two weeks ago to Class 4A’s top-ranked squad, Roswell Goddard. Senior quarterback Michael Trujillo completed 18-of-25 passes for 247 yards and three TDs, while junior running back Jesus Davalos added 131 yards rushing — 110 in the second half — and two scores.
Portales had two touchdown passes called back by penalty and another one dropped in the end zone. Then the Horsemen (2-4) put up a goalline stand late in the second quarter to keep it a 7-0 game at the half.
“We should’ve been a lot farther ahead at halftime,” Adkins said. “All we had to do was execute. They had the momentum going (after the goalline stand), but we shut them down after that and got momentum back on our side.”
The 5-foot-10, 170-pound Adkins caught scoring passes of 16 and 17 yards from Trujillo in the third quarter. In between, his 26-yard interception return off a tipped ball set up a 1-yard TD run by Davalos.
Adkins admitted it’s nice to get interceptions, but it’s probably more fun to score touchdowns.
“Picks are momentum-changers,” he said. “But there isn’t a feeling like a touchdown pass. It’s one of the best feelings you can have.”
Adkins finished with five catches for 63 yards, the same as senior Nick Bliss. Meantime, Davalos caught six balls for 62 yards.
Adkins sees good things down the line for the Rams, who begin District 4-3A action in two weeks at Lovington.
“We haven’t showed people what we can play like yet,” Adkins said. “If we all do our jobs, offense and defense, I think we’re unbeatable in 3A.”
Correll was concerned about the missed opportunities in the first half.
“It looked like we hadn’t played in two weeks,” he said, “but when you come out with a shutout and put points on the board, we played like we can (in the second half).
“We’ve got to put some things in our offensive scheme to handle those situations. We ran the plays we wanted; we just didn’t execute.”
Senior Shawn Carrasco also intercepted a pass in the third quarter, leading to Adkins’ second score, while seniors Brandon McAfee and Ethan Grubbs had quarterback sacks. The Rams limited the Horsemen to 180 yards, including 53 after halftime.
St. Michael’s 0 0 0 0 — 0
Portales 7 0 21 7 — 35
Scoring summary
Frist quarter
P — Nick Bliss 30-yard pass from Michael Trujillo (Junior Olivas kick), :23
Third quarter
P — Brandon Adkins 16-yard pass from Trujillo (Olivas kick), 9:17
P — Jesus Davalos 1-yard run (kick failed), 3:11
P — Adkins 17-yard pass from Trujillo (Davalos pass from Trujillo), 1:30
Fourth quarter
P — Davalos 14-yard run (Olivas kick), 9:43
Team statistics
SM Por
First downs 10 23
Rushes-yards 38-138 32-211
Passing yards 42 247
Total yards 180 458
Comp-att-int 3-10-2 18-25-0
Punting 3-35.5 1-34.0
Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-0
Penalties-yards 6-49 7-45
Individual statistics
Rushing — St. Michael’s, Manuel Trujillo 18-69, Michael Aranda 1-46, Russell Disch 14-45, Andre Salazar 1-2, Daniel Wiegel 4-minus 14. Portales, Davalos 17-131, Trujillo 11-64, Nate Bliss 2-9, Zach Terry 2-7.
Passing — St. Michael’s, Wiegel 3-10-2-42. Portales, Trujillo 18-25-0-247.
Receiving — St. Michael’s, Trujillo 2-25, Anthony Cantu 1-17. Portales, Davalos 6-62, Brandon Adkins 5-63, Bliss 5-63, Shawn Sites 2-38, Shawn Carrasco 2-21.
Records — St. Michael’s 2-4, Portales 4-2.
