Upbeat Tigers maul football Rams 34-0 in season-ending traditional rivalry game

It was about as good as a season-ending traditional high school rivalry football game gets.

Except for the results that turned it into a downer for Port Chester and an upper for Mamaroneck.

But a lot happened along the way to a Rams 34-0 loss.

So, let's go back to the beginning.

The curtain raiser

It started as an incomparably beautiful spring day. The Saturday (4/24) pre-game ceremony was a symphony of good vibes as the Ram gridiron seniors and their cheerleader counterparts were honored for their contributions to the athletic program. The pep rally the day before had a Hollywood movie set feel as it unfolded under the historic Port Chester High School clocktower. It was quite a show.

Especially by pandemic season standards that required social distancing, masking and all the other virus-mandated safety precautions that must be followed not only by the participants but the limited number of fans allowed in the stands. Everybody was waiting for the real show—the game—the more than century-old traditional rivalry that ranks right up there with the best in Westchester history, right up there with Rye-Harrison, Iona Prep-Stepinac, New Rochelle-White Plains.

Stage is set

You name it, it is hard to beat what the game means to Port Chester-Mamaroneck football aficionados. So, the stage was set for something special, the curtain went up and the game began. Unfortunately.

Because even before the regular season-ending home game started, it was almost a foregone conclusion that by game's end the football Rams were going to lose to the Tigers.

It wasn't so much a question of whether Port Chester would lose, it was more a question of how much the Rams would lose by.

Because there were a lot more of them—Tigers, that is—than Rams, with more than 40 Mamaroneck players on the sidelines, one seemingly bigger than the next. And that compared to 18 Rams on the Port Chester sidelines, a relatively small number for a Section One Class AA (large school) ultra-competitive divisional team.

Rams outnumbered

So, the Rams were outnumbered from the get-go by more than 2-1.

But it was even more than that.

Not only did new Rams head coach Chris Halstead not have as many horses, but he was facing a team that had a whole herd of them.

And it didn't stop there.

The next clue was that a couple of key Ram seniors sat out the first quarter due to accountability issues.

Halstead doesn't talk about those issues. He doesn't have to. Because all you had to do was look to see.

There was one of the Rams’ most promising seniors, someone battling for a starting job that would showcase his limitless potential, standing on the sidelines with his helmet off, looking like a young God. He all but preened in the sun while the rest of his teammates were going through their warmup. And then a cheerleader leaned over the stands and he ran over to her and gave her a quick kiss on the lips, Romeo and Juliet-style.

Kiss and miss

But just remember this, a kiss is just a kiss, but football is football, and it isn't a lovey-dovey game.

So, yes, it is spring, when a young man's fancy turns to all kinds of things, and a young woman's fancy does also turn to the same kinds of things. But there is a time and a place for everything. And a football field may not be that place. Because it shows that player's helmetless head wasn't in the game.

Once the game started, it quickly became apparent that not every Ram player's head was in the game either.

And that was sad and too bad.

Because the undermanned, overmatched Rams were giving the Tigers all they could handle. At least for a little while. And with 4:15 left to play in the first quarter, it was still 0-0 and the Rams held the Tigers on third and one and forced Mamaroneck to kick from their own 35-yard line.

The Rams took over on their own 25-yard line. But not for long. Because a flag was thrown. And the Rams were penalized for running into the kicker. That returned the ball to Mamaroneck, and the energized Tigers came right back with a vengeance with three quick passes, left side, right side, center, touchdown, extra point good. And just like that, Mamaroneck was up 7-0.

The Rams were down. And never got back up. Because the Tigers wouldn't let them as they ran and passed their way to a 21-0 lead at the half and kept right on scoring until they were up 27-0 by the end of third quarter. It was 34-0 at the end of the game, when they took home the traditional athletic director's trophy they get to keep until the next time they meet up with Port Chester.

Victor gets spoils

To the victor go the spoils and the result of this game spoiled the finale for a lot of senior Rams who played their last game for Port Chester: Clay Alvarado, Joramys Bazora, Kenny Borrome, Cameron Burnett, Dominik Dobrowski, Carlos Escobar, Jakym Jordan, Jayden Kim, Steven Marte, Cristofer Martinez, Jason Nieves, Tony Roman, Luis Santana and Isaiah Santiago.

"We played hard, but we were outmanned on the edge," Halstead said.

They were outmanned at all four corners. And everywhere else on the field. Only Halstead is too much of a gentleman to say that. Or repeat what he has said throughout the season: "We make too many mistakes, we keep shooting ourselves in the foot, we have to learn how to win."

While he admits that his installing of a new system on offense and defense has been hard to learn with little time to learn it during an abbreviated pandemic season, it isn't that hard to learn. Because football isn't exactly advanced calculus despite all the X's and O's. Except maybe it is during a COVID-19 lost educational year when students have gone through shutdowns, lockdowns, hybrid/virtual learning, and many aren't really used to authority figures in their lives.

"Don't get me wrong, I love these kids. I love how hard they work, but some of them just have a lot of growing up to do," Halstead said.

The good times

And don't get it wrong, some of the Rams did some good things against Mamaroneck: Junior quarterback Dan Hinz got off some solid runs on quarterback keeps and hit sophomore Colin Taylor with a nifty pass up the middle. Jakym Jordan broke a few long gainers on reverses. Luis Santana, Steven Marte and Isaiah Santiago powered their way into short yardage gains. And Byron Olmino, Carlos Escobar, Francisco Aguilar, Kleiberth (Clay) Alvarado, Joramys Bazora, Nick Bolanos, Anthony Del Vecchio, did a lot of hard-hitting in and around the trenches. And Alejandro Leyva got off a couple of good kicks.

But the first downs were few and far between and the closest the Rams got to a score was when Hinz was stopped on downs at the Mamaroneck 13-yard line late in the third quarter—when Port Chester was driving to avert a shutout but couldn't and didn't.

"Mamaroneck was a tough team, and overall the season has been a rollercoaster ride," said Carlos Escobar, an All-League wrestler who never got to wrestle because the pandemic cancelled the season but allowed him to develop into one of the Rams’ best linemen anyway. "It was a pleasure playing alongside my teammates because at least we got a football season in during the time of the pandemic. And it was a pleasure playing for our new coaches. They have definitely changed and impacted my life."

For the returning Rams like Hinz, Taylor, Bolanos, Leyva, Del Vecchio, Olmino and Christopher Pascale, there is always next year, virus permitting, and another shot at Mamaroneck during what will hopefully be a turnaround season for Port Chester.