Grid Rams win 'Rain Bowl' at Ramapo
October 12, 2023 at 12:45 a.m.
In their latest version of the Rain Bowl, the Port Chester football Rams edged Ramapo away by a deuce, four deuces actually, 26-24, stopping four pivotal two-point conversions (including one with the game on the line in the dying moments) while three different Rams scored (John Delcid, Marc Dorsainvil and John Pauletti twice). Kicker Brian Aguilera notched the winning extra points and Pauletti's number four got a strong assist in the win and not just because he ran for more than 139 yards on 18 carries. 
'Watch number four'
"Watch out for number four," the Ramapo coaches kept yelling from the get-go, urging their team to key on Pauletti, the Rams’ main offensive threat.
"It sounded like a bad golfer yelling fore over and over," according to Gary Sullivan, one of the Ram football boosters at the game last Saturday (10/7), supplying a colorful account of the action.
That emphasis on four suited the Rams to a tee.
On the first play from scrimmage, Rams sophomore quarterback Alexis Morel faked a handoff to Pauletti, kept the ball and raced 70 yards before being pulled down from behind on the five-yard line. With third and goal from the Ramapo eight after a false start, Morel turned and flipped the ball to Delcid who ran the ball in for the game's first touchdown. Aguilera kicked the extra point, and the Rams were off and running in more ways than one.
Decoy shields speed
With Ramapo still keying on Pauletti in the next series, Dorsainvil, a track sprinter and the fastest runner on the team, had five consecutive carries for 52 yards including a 35-yard TD sprint. Once again Aguilera kicked the extra point. And the Rams were up 14-0. And threatening. Because senior Nate Provencher, slowed down by an early season foot injury, came in for a change of pace and was driving the Rams towards a TD when a Ramapo linebacker's helmet jarred the ball loose, causing a fumble with Ramapo recovering. They took to the air, alternating passes with long runs, and scored twice, the second TD coming with just over two minutes left to play in the half. But both times the Rams stopped the two-point conversion attempts, so the score was 14-12 going into halftime of a game that was wet and messy and kept getting wetter and messier.
But the Rams were used to it, having played five of their six games this season in wet and heavy rain conditions almost as though they were a swim team, according to Sullivan. And it was from the third quarter on that Pauletti made a real splash with his power runs, left, right, up the middle, grinding out a touchdown that was followed by a missed extra point conversion. Aguilera more than made up for that missed extra point kick with a perfectly executed onside kick on the next play, recovering the ball himself and setting up Pauletti for another ground-and-pound TD run. The Rams were stopped on the two-point conversion try but they were up 26-12 and looked like they were home free.
Pass 'n' run game clicks
Until they weren't. Because Ramapo ran a 5-wide formation, hit on a long TD pass and scored to make the tally 26-18 only to have their two-point conversion try stopped by Dorsainvil and hard-charging Jaden Barbour. But Ramapo seemed to get a second wind during a wind and rainstorm and came right back with another TD on a long, sustained drive, drawing them within two points with the clock winding down. Ramapo ran out wide on what would have been the tying two-point conversion that would have sent the game into overtime, but Pauletti stood up the runner with a hard hit at the goal line, Scott Sullivan helped, and a swarm of Ram tacklers derailed the Ramapo last gasp effort. Game over.
And what a game it was for the Rams’ number four Pauletti and more, from the line play and kicking of Aguilera (including a beauty of a "pooch kick" that pinned Ramapo on its own five-yard line) to Barbour, captain, linebacker and team leader, setting the tone with two tackles (including one for a loss) on Ramapo's first sequence of the game, forcing a punt. And then there was Dorsainvil coming up with a TD-saving tackle on the Ramapo QB on the next sequence when there was nothing but wet grass and an open field in front of him to Morel gaining 144 yards on 11 carries out of the quarterback slot.
No thunder, lightning
"It was a game where we played very well offensively and had 345 yards rushing," head coach Chris Halstead said after the game. "Pauletti and Morel had monster games. And Delcid (who has been nominated for the "Heart of a Giant Award" sponsored by the New York Football Giants and the Hospital for Special Surgery) played very well in his new position on defense."
So it was a game that had a little bit of everything including a lot of rain that came without the thunder and lightning that would have necessitated its being canceled. Instead the Rams supplied their own version of gridiron thunder and lightning and walked off with a badly-needed win that made them 2-1 in developmental league play, 2-3 overall, with their next two league games coming up Friday (10/13) away against Tappan Zee at 6:30 p.m. under the lights. Their Homecoming Game next Saturday (10/21) at 1:30 p.m. against Poughkeepsie will be the regular season finale. And after that, who knows? Depending on how those games go, there could even be the playoffs and post-season games in the Rams’ future.
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