PREP FOOTBALL
Rio Rancho rebounds with rout of Los Lunas
Micah Takahashi accounted for five touchdowns as the Rams beat third-ranked Los Lunas 48-20.
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RIO RANCHO 鈥� Whatever offensive issues the Rio Rancho Rams were having last week, those were largely ironed out on Friday night.
The Rams, ranked eighth in Class 6A, had success on the ground and in the air as they beat Class 5A鈥檚 third-ranked Los Lunas 48-20.
Rio Rancho (1-1) had just a single touchdown in a Week 1 home loss to Las Cruces.
The Rams fell into an early 7-0 hole after muffing a punt deep in its own end. On the next play, Los Lunas quarterback Luke Cieremans tossed a 20-yard scoring pass to Tayson Gaxiola.
Rio Rancho answered with an 83-yard scoring drive, capped by Micah Takahashi鈥檚 17-yard touchdown pass on third and goal to Gilly Terrazas.
Angelo Ortiz of the Rams took a direct snap late in the first half and sprinted 17 yards for a fourth-down touchdown and a 14-7 lead. However, on the play prior to that, the Rams missed a field goal, but Los Lunas was flagged for running into the kicker.
Given new life, the Rams capitalized.
They added a 36-yard field goal with 70 seconds left before halftime for a 17-7 edge.
The Tigers (1-1) tried valiantly to stay in it, and cut the deficit to 17-14 on their opening drive of the second half. Jagger Casillas ran 16 yards for a score. But Rio Rancho quickly responded.
Backup QB, freshman Crew Victor, darted 53 yards on a keeper to get the Rams to the Los Lunas 11. And then Takahashi 鈥� who regularly burned the Tigers with both his arm and legs 鈥� scored on a keeper on the next play for a 24-14 game.
Takahashi and Terrazas combined on another score late in the third quarter, a 29-yarder for a commanding 31-14 lead.
Los Lunas scored in the final 10 seconds of the quarter, with Brad Mallory going over from the 4. But 31-20 was as close as the Tigers got down the stretch.
Takahashi fired a 64-yard touchdown pass to Terrazas down the near sideline just 68 seconds into the final quarter, and Takahashi added a 21-yard keeper for a score less than a minute later after Los Lunas fumbled the ball away.
Rio Rancho visits Goddard next week. The Tigers have their home opener in Week 3 versus Goddard, the only meaningful game scheduled in this regular season between teams from the two Class 5A districts.
James Yodice covers prep sports for the Journal. You can reach him at jyodice@abqjournal.com or via X at .
