Football Rams face Tappan Zee team with winning record in home game Saturday

October 16, 2024 at 11:15 p.m.

No matter how you spin the records, and no matter how they go round and round, the essential songs they sing and the stories they tell remain the same. That means Port Chester's 2-3 football Rams, refreshed, renewed and revitalized after a bye week, may be in for a long day Saturday when they tackle Tappan Zee (5-1) at 1:30 p.m. at home at John Ryan Stadium. And Zee's record should be a cause for concern because of the teams they have already beaten.

The Dutchmen have already beaten Horace Greeley by a score of 35-13 and pounded Peekskill 26-0, and what makes those games relevant is that both Greeley and Peekskill beat the Rams earlier in the season. Zee also beat Poughkeepsie 42-0, Edgemont 27-6 and Walter Panas—the Rams’ next opponent—35-6 with their only loss to date coming against Pearl River in a 27-14 opening game loss.

Good news, bad news

The good news for the Rams is that they should be at close to full strength with the bye week having given senior fullback John Pauletti a full week to recover from a leg injury incurred in Port Chester's Oct. 5 close win over Woodlands with successful extra-point conversions a factor in the Rams’ win after both teams scored five touchdowns, ironic because Port Chester failed to make a two-point conversion that cost them a chance to tie the game the week before after a last minute Pauletti touchdown against Peekskill.

Rams senior receiver Scott Sullivan has been medically cleared to play after receiving six stitches in his arm towards the end of the Peekskill game and speedy senior running back Billy Villanova will be back from his recruiting trip to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

The bad news is that the Rams have been overly reliant on their well-scouted one-two punch of Pauletti, the battered and battering Ram consistently and repetitively running up the middle punctuated by an occasional keeper by quarterback Alexis Morel. Their passing game has been a non-factor because it has been rarely used despite having talented receivers in Sullivan, Xavier Tapia and Jeremy Noel with a strong line built around Alber Poroj, Louis Granados and Manny Diaz capable of giving the QB time to throw. And their pass defense has been virtually non-existent.

Things could change

But maybe the Rams will yet open up their playbook so it consists of more than the one-man Pauletti ground-and-pound attack with Pauletti, a next level player, literally and figuratively carrying the Rams on his back with the occasional Morel keeper and Villanova sweeper just about the Rams’ only other play.

That may yet change. Hopefully against Zee and in their following game against Panas next Saturday (10/26) at home at 3 p.m.

After that, who knows, there may even be independent league playoff games for the Rams. They certainly deserve it after all those pre-season workouts, weightlifting sessions throughout the year, in-season film sessions, drills, practices and all those X's and O's. And, no matter how those records spin, win or lose, what you gotta love about the Rams is that they never quit.