Football Rams miss making the playoffs but came ever so close to getting indy nod
November 6, 2024 at 11:20 p.m.
The high school football playoffs began last weekend for Class AA, A, B and independent league teams, and the indy Port Chester Rams didn't make the cut—and that was the unkindest cut of all.
Because the Rams probably could have been in the playoff mix except for a point or two here and there, maybe even because a game they didn't play hurt them when they finished in a three-way tie for the last playoff spot and wound up on the inside looking in.
What could have been
Their missing out on the playoffs left the Rams wondering about what could have been because they had one of the leading rushers in the indy league in next level senior fullback John Pauletti, a solid senior core, and one of the league's best one-two scoring punches in junior quarterback Alexis Morel and Pauletti.
No doubt about it, despite a predictable ground-and-pound offense revolving around Pauletti up-the-middle broken up by an occasional Morel quarterback keep or sweep, Port Chester had a respectable 3-4 season even though their passing game was virtually non-existent. Their lack of a passing game may have been a contributing factor to their having been passed over for a playoff berth.
Whatever the reasons, the playoffs didn't happen for Port Chester.
Haves and have nots
And yet a few teams the Rams beat were playing in the postseason playoffs.
They beat Walter Panas 22-21 in the regular season home finale with Pauletti scoring the tying touchdown and winning extra points with just under four minutes left to play. Yet Panas was slated to play Horace Greeley in the playoffs.
The Rams also beat Woodlands 38-32, the extra points after touchdowns being the difference, Morel and Pauletti being the difference makers, yet Woodlands was playing a postseason game against Tuckahoe.
And Port Chester lost close to Peekskill 14-12, Pauletti scoring the touchdown that brought the Rams close in the final minutes, but a sub QB inexplicably got the call on the two-point tying conversion and botched it. And that was the difference. Yet there was Peekskill going up against Tappan Zee in the playoffs.
The top indy duo
While Greeley and Zee, the class of the indy league, both beat the Rams handily during the regular season, an improved Port Chester team would have loved another shot at them even after losing to both teams by nearly identical scores—34-7 to Greeley, 34-6 to Zee, again that one-point differential cropping up.
Missing indy link
Which brings us to the indy game against Poughkeepsie the Rams didn't play that was the potential tie-breaking difference maker, according to Ram football insiders, because the odds were good that the Rams would have tacked on vital points against them.
Instead of tackling Poughkeepsie, 0-7 overall, 0-5 in league play (including a 55-14 loss to Panas and a 30-14 loss to Albertus Magnus, both teams the Rams beat), Port Chester booked a non-league game against Long Island Lutheran, a prep school powerhouse ranked 13th in New York State at that time while the Rams wee ranked somewhere in the low 400s.
Not so surprisingly, the Rams lost 40-7 at home to Luhi under the lights. What was surprising was that the Rams booked a team that was so far out of their league in more ways than one rather than play Poughkeepsie, a team they beat the year before. But in a way that decision wasn't surprising, especially if you remember that game.
Reason behind decision
Following last year's win over Poughkeepsie, a fight broke out when somebody tapped a Poughkeepsie player on the helmet as they left the field, exiting the playing field by running up the stairs of John Ryan Stadium to their waiting buses. The police were called to break up the scuffle. And did. But the damage was done.
The Port Chester administration decided that because there was bad blood between the teams, the Rams wouldn't play Poughkeepsie this year, maybe not for a long time, even as they corrected the postgame exit strategy for visiting teams so rivals would leave from the playing field rather than up the stadium steps lined on both side by the Port Chester crowd.
The result: The rest of the indy league beat up on winless Poughkeepsie this year. Port Chester didn't play them. And that figured into the three-way tie, according to Ram football insiders. And then rather than play a postseason "Bowl" game against Hendrick Hudson last Wednesday (10/30), the Rams narrowly voted to end the season on a high note after winning their homecoming regular season finale against Panas.
That brought down the final curtain on a dramatic fall season filled with memorable moments.
Fall season highlights
The highlights included Pauletti winding up as the fourth-ranked rusher in the section, racking up more than 1,000 yards despite missing at least the equivalent of half a game because he was limited to the number of carries due to a pre-existing medical condition. Despite opponents keying on him, defenses stacked against him didn't stop Pauletti from amassing a highlight reel of unforgettable games. They started with an early season victory that included Pauletti scoring three touchdowns in a 27-14 win over Albertus Magnus featuring a 60-yard TD run during a game in which he rushed for 479 yards, the season's fourth best rushing performance.
While Pauletti was the Rams’ "Mr. Touchdown" and their best two-way player, Port Chester’s roster was stocked with solid if unsung seniors like Brian Escobar, a lineman and linebacker who is also one of Port Chester's best all-around athletes as a wrestler, baseball player and possible college walk on. So is Xavier Tapia, a heavy hitter and outstanding pass receiver along with Scott Sullivan who figures to be a Rams varsity baseball starting catcher with college athletic scholarship potential. And who can forget Luis Granados, the two-way lineman and outstanding kicker who broke his leg early in his next to last home game against Tappan Zee, was ambulanced to White Plains Hospital and insisted on returning to the high school on crutches, his leg in a cast, so he could be with his teammates for the post-mortem after the loss. He also stood on the sidelines on crutches to root the Rams home in their homecoming win finale against Panas.
That's true Ram spirit. And the Rams will always have those memorable moments, that clutch final win over Panas and a lot more starting with that early season Magnus beat down. But what the seniors won't have are the playoffs that could have been while for the rest of the Rams there is always the possibility that next year will be different.
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