Dexter dominates Rattlers 50-0

Tucumcari's football team found itself dominated from start to finish in a 50-0 loss Saturday at Dexter that was ended by the mercy rule at halftime.

The Demons improved to 2-1 on the season, with its only loss to a stout Portales team during the previous week.

The Rattlers fell to 0-3.

Tucumcari coach Wayne Ferguson said "there wasn't a whole lot of positives" for his team during Saturday's game.

"We didn't look good all," he said. "We struggled defensively; we struggled offensively. We have to give credit to Dexter defensively; they had a pretty good scheme against us."

Tucumcari had shown some success in previous games with a power-running game, led by fullback Colt Garcia.

But even that was taken away by the Demons. Dexter forced Rattlers quarterback Alijah Jimenez to throw the ball more, leading to incompletions and interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown.

"Colt had a couple of decent runs, but Dexter really crowded the line, and they had really fast skills people and were able to put a lot of pressure on Alijah and lock up our receivers," Ferguson said. "They took away our running game and dared us to throw it. We threw the ball a lot, and we didn't have receivers catch it very well."

Ferguson said his team's best chance to score was when wide receiver Josh Infante caught a Jimenez pass that would have led to a touchdown if he hadn't stepped out of bounds.

Ferguson said his team tried a gameplan to adjust to Dexter's speed but had little success.

"With our limited personnel, we changed things up a little bit but didn't have a whole lot of success," he said.

Tucumcari's next game at 1 p.m. Saturday at Raton will be the finale of the abbreviated season.

Ferguson said Tucumcari, along with many other small schools, have opted not to play in Week Five that the New Mexico Activities Association has set aside as "bowl games" for teams that want to play foes from outside of their region.