The story line in Rio Rancho’s home opener Friday night was simple.

Look no further than the third quarter to see why Salpointe Catholic made a successful trip to the City of Vision from Tucson, out-scoring the Rams (1-1) 20-0 in the third period.

The Rams cruised into halftime with a 24-14 lead, following a 17-yard field goal by Troy Rogers with 1:59 to play in the second period.

Tyler Baker was stymied by the Salpointe defense in the second half Friday night.

Earlier, senior quarterback Tyler Baker had tossed touchdown passes of 6 and 35 yards to Jeric Magnant and one of 36 yards to Rogers, who tacked on the point-after each time to help Rio Rancho grab a 21-7 lead.

Dominic Cozzetti got the Lancers back in the game when he capped a 13-play, 72-yard drive with a 3-yard run, with the PAT cutting the Rams’ lead to 21-14 with 6:01 left in the second quarter.

The Rams threatened to score a TD late in the half when Baker connected with Magnant on a 32-yard pass, giving Rio Rancho the ball at the Salpointe 2. But Darius Morgan and Baker couldn’t bull their way into the end zone and a third-down pass for Adam Shapiro was incomplete at the goal line.

So Rogers nailed a three-pointer.

Nobody knew it at the time, but that ended the Rams’ scoring.

Rio Rancho was 0 for 3 on third down in the decisive third quarter while the Lancers (1-0) had a 73-yard, three-play drive; a 72-yard, four-play drive; and a 40-yard, five-play drive to put the game out of reach.

The Rams never got closer to paydirt than the Lancers’ 37 in the second half as the offense bogged down.

“They’re a big football team. They manhandled us,” said Rams defensive coordinator Gino Satriana. “They ran at will off-tackle. Our kids fought their butt off the whole game; they didn’t give up.

“Those guys are averaging 6-4 across the way and 260, 270, across the front, they’re going to run the ball at will. They based-up on us and they came after us.”

Baker was 14 of 23 for 166 yards in the first half, with three TDs and an interception. He passed for only 69 yards in the second half, with 26 of those yards coming on a completion to Shapiro.

Sacked three times, Baker was limited to a minus-14 yards rushing. Darius Morgan led the paltry running game with 33 yards on seven carries.

Cozzetti wound up with96 rushing yards and teammate Ryan Moore outdid him, gaining 126 yards.

RAMifications: Baker was named KOB-TV’s GameDay Player of the Week last week for his opening-game outing at Hobbs, when he threw for nearly 450 yards.

… Rio Rancho heads up US 550 to face one of Class 4A’s best teams, Aztec, this coming Friday for a 7 p.m. kickoff. The Aztecs were ranked No. 1 in the coaches 4A poll last week.

poll, lost to Goddard, another Rams opponent (Sept. 18, homecoming game) 49-45 in last season’s 4A championship game. It’s the first meeting between the Tigers and the Rams.