Hoping to atone for what was a humiliating end to a decent 2007 season, Rio Rancho opens the 2008 football season Friday evening at 7 when the Hobbs Eagles visit Rio Rancho Stadium.

Rio Rancho’s last victory of the 2007 campaign was a 28-21 victory in Hobbs, which marked the Rams’ first postseason victory. Seven days later, the season ended on a rainy evening at the Field of Dreams, where Class 5A champion drubbed the Rams (6-6) 57-16.

The unranked Eagles should be improved from 2007 but will be considered the underdogs in their game here. The Rams were ranked seventh in the first coaches poll, where the Eagles were unranked. Rio Rancho was eighth in the media’s all-classes poll, with the Eagles coming in at No. 10.

Rams players celebrated their "Round of 16" playoff victory at Hobbs last November. They'll hope for the same success when the Eagles fly in Friday.

Second-year Rams coach Michael Worley, given more time to prepare his team this season than in 2007 when he was a late hire, said the team’s performance in its scrimmage with Eldorado last week may have been deceptive.

“We only showed maybe – maybe – 25 percent of our offense. It was very vanilla. Yes, we could have dome some different things that we could have had some tremendous success with,” he said. “We want to lay a foundation for our offense at this point and we really don’t want to give too much away.”

The Rams will run out of what most teams call a spread offense, although Worley prefers the more-descriptive “one-back formation.”

Running back Troy Harris will be set up a few feet away from quarterback Tyler Baker, ready to take a handoff or pitchout, deal out a block, or run into the flat or downfield to catch a pass.

Of course, the Rams have other weapons, such as receivers Aaron Holt, Cody Moya and Jeric Magnant, and speedy tailback Nate Wilkins.

Worley said his philosophy is to “take what the defense gives us,” but that ordinarily his team will feature a balanced attack with 50 percent passing and 50 percent running plays.

He said he thought the offense “moved the ball rather effectively” against Eldorado, although he saw a need for “efficiency in and out of the huddle.”

“Hobbs is going to be a very athletic team,” he predicted. “They have some tremendous athletes and some strong, fast runners. Their quarterback has no varsity experience so he’ll be learning on the fly. And they have to replace two receivers.”

Worley said that although the Rams lost quite a bit of their offensive firepower last year through graduation: starting quarterback Orion Murphy, running backs Thomas Trujillo and Marcus Williams, and wide receiver Chris Newsome, the team has no questions about its depth and who the team leaders will be.

“For us, not much has changed as far as philosophy and the base offense, the base (3-5-3) defense is concerned,” he said. The defense, once he reviewed film from the team’s scrimmage, “made tremendous strides.”

Senior linebacker Carlo LiRosi said after the scrimmage that he was happy to hit someone other than a teammate in the scrimmage, and he’s anticipating the Rams will be ready tomorrow night.

“We’re going to go watch film, we’re going to see what went wrong on that (Eldorado TD pass) play and, hopefully, fix it. That whole drive was horrible.”

LiRosi was referring to an Eagles’ scoring drive. Eldorado crossed the goal line on a run play up the middle from 10 yards out but was called for holding, putting the ball back at the 20.

No problem: The Eagles threw a 20-yard scoring strike on the next play.

Although the Eagles also scored when they recovered a Rams fumble and took it back for a score, LiRosi had made a big defensive play when he forced a fumble.

“It was just a running back. I was on blitz. I just got in there, went to wrap him up and I noticed the ball was getting loose and I just grabbed that sucker out,” he explained.

“I wouldn’t say we had a major weakness; we have to learn how to stop the trap, but I thought everything else was pretty good,” he said.

RAMifications: The Rams are 5-6 in openers but have won four of their last five.

… The Rams are ranked eighth in the first KRQE-TV “all classes” poll, compiled by the media. Las Cruces is No. 1 and Mayfield is No. 2. Hobbs is ranked 10th.

… Roswell, which visits Rio Rancho next Friday as the Rams’ second of six visitors this season, plays host to Ruidoso Friday. Worley said three coaches would head to the Wool Bowl to scout the Coyotes. The Rams’ District 1-5A foes also open this week: West Mesa tackles Manzano tonight at Wilson Stadium, while on Friday Cibola meets Sandia and Gallup travels to Farmington.

… Cleveland High plays its first football game Wednesday when Del Norte meets the Storm freshmen at the Mid-High at 4 p.m.