Old foes on new ground for 4A final
And then there was one. One northern football team left in the high school state playoffs, that is. But, oh, that one. The Class 4A No. 1-ranked and undefeated Robertson has reached the state championship game again, looking to avenge last year’s loss in the season finale.
And the Cardinals (12-0) will face a familiar foe in No. 2 Portales (11-1), who they knocked off in last year’s semifinals.
This time, though, the game will be played in the brand, spanking new Greyhounds Stadium on the Eastern New Mexico University campus instead of the ragged, grass surface at Robertson.
“It’s a state-of-the-art facility,” Rams coach Jaime Ramirez said of the $13.5 million stadium that opened this year. “The kids love it. It’s a nice atmosphere.” No matter the setting, Robertson coach Leroy Gonzalez said his squad will be focused on one thing only.
“This is two good teams playing and we’re playing for a championship,” he said.
“We probably don’t know how to act on a nice surface. But when it comes down to it, each quarter is 12 minutes long. The field is 100 yards long. It’s the same game you play during the year; it’s just that there’s something at stake at the end of this one. We’ve told the kids, ‘This is a special moment, so be your best and have no regrets and play to the whistle.’’’
The teams are fairly similar in their makeup in that each plays hard-nosed defense and each prefers to establish the run offensively, while both can be dangerous through the air.
For the Cardinals, the latter means watching Arjay Ortiz make something special happen, which he did repeatedly last week against Hatch Valley, throwing for a career-best 295 yards and three touchdowns, while adding two more scores rushing.
“He’s a dual threat,” Ramirez said. “He throws the ball well, runs the ball well. He’s a concern for any football team that he plays.”
As a matter of fact, he said, the entire squad causes concern.
“They’re all well coached,” Ramirez said. “They play solid on defense. They have a strong running game. We’re facing a very good Las Vegas Robertson football team.”
Gonzalez said he sees the same thing when he watches Rams’ game film.
“They’re very physical,” he said. “They’re a tough team, physical up front. They look like they control the line of scrimmage in every game they’ve played, kind of what we try to do. They have a heck of running back (Darion Ontiveros) and (Francisco) Ramirez is a heck of a quarterback. And they have a receiver (Tyrese Dawson) who is a playmaker. They put people in binds with their offense.”
To combat that, the Cardinals must come out hitting hard, Gonzalez said.
“We’re going to play our defense, play our technique and go from there,” he said. “We’re not going to change it much, what we do. We’ve worked on that. We’re going to play Cardinals defense. Whatever comes out of it, comes out of it.”
It’s really the defense that separates Robertson from its opponents, said Ortiz, who also plays defensive back and had an interception that he almost returned for a touchdown last week, as well as a fumble recovery.
“The coaches expect something from us and we expect something from ourselves,” he said. “They expect us to make the big plays and make the tackles. And defense has a lot to do with it, too. Our defense is pretty good and we love to hit. That’s just it. A lot of teams come and if they don’t like to hit, they don’t like to play us.”