Rams looking to turn season around against Raton

Raton coach Brock Walton naturally looks at the personnel when he reviews tapes of the Portales football team, because that’s who his Tigers will visit tonight at Greyhound Stadium. To Walton, the scores of Portales’ last two games don’t match up quite right.

Although the Rams were beaten by Muleshoe 55-14 two weeks ago and 26-7 by Texico last week, Walton noted that Portales was certainly in both games at intermission.

“I’m sure they’re not real pleased right now, but they’ve played a pretty rough schedule to start the season,” Walton said. “I didn’t think that either game exemplified the score. Both of those teams (Muleshoe and Texico) kind of ran away at the end. I’ve been real impressed with Portales — they’re always a good matchup for us.”

During his seven years at Raton, Walton’s teams have met up with Portales each season. Ironically, two of the Tigers’ three victories came on the Rams’ home turf.

Last year, it wasn’t close in Raton as Portales beat the Tigers 63-21. While Portales went on to win the Class 3A state championship, the youthful Tigers won a playoff game before losing in the quarterfinal round to Bloomfield.

But Raton has started the current campaign by winning its first three games and the Tigers are led by 6-4 junior quarterback Dustin Walton — the coach’s nephew.

“They beat a pretty good Socorro team last week,” Portales coach Andy Correll, whose squad curently sports a 1-2 record. “They’re big, they’re physical and they run their offense very, very well. Their offense is the same as ours — a Texas Tech-type offense, just throwing it everywhere.”

As for containing Portales’ offense, Walton said running back Jesus Davalos and Shawn Carrasco — quarterback for the first three games — are the keys.

But those two seniors were the only Rams to have an official rushing carry in the loss to Texico, while four receivers (including Davalos) grabbed 10 Carrasco passes for a net total of 56 yards.

Portales will likely strive to attain the more diversified attack it had against Muleshoe, when eight different offensive players got their hands on the ball, by any means necessary.

“We need to get this thing turned around,” Correll said. “Really, the kids have got to just step up. I really felt like we regressed last week instead of making progress.”