Football Rams lose season opener 34-7
September 11, 2024 at 10:18 p.m.
One game does not a season make. Which is a good thing. Because Port Chester's football Rams lost their season-opening game to Horace Greeley 34-7 away last Friday (9/6) in Chappaqua.
The Rams scored their only touchdown with just 3:02 left to play when sophomore backup quarterback Jefferson Castaneda plunged into the end zone on a quarterback sneak from inside the five-yard line after senior fullback John Pauletti had carried the team on his back for most of the yardage—and most of the game—leading up to that TD.
Echo chamber effect
In fact, Pauletti, the battering Ram in almost every sense of the word, had been the Rams’ workhorse throughout the game, running an estimated 90% of all Port Chester's plays in what amounted to a ground-and-pound game that made the announcer sound like an echo chamber.
Because Port Chester's one-note offense seemed to be Pauletti up the middle or Pauletti plunging slightly left or right of center time and time again, almost always for short yardage, occasionally peeling off a long gainer. He was virtually unstoppable even with the Quakers keying on him.
That seemed to be the Rams’ game plan. Ride Pauletti as far as he could take them. With the occasional diversionary keeper from junior quarterback Alexis Morel, going nowhere because the Quakers had apparently scouted the play that worked so well last year and were ready for it this time around.
No pass, no rush, no way
So it wasn't a happy start to the new fall season.
With the Rams’ passing game virtually non-existent and their pass rush ditto, Pauletti alone wasn't enough.
So almost from the get-go it looked like it was going to be a long night for the Rams with their mistakes even more glaring under the Friday night lights. Especially when those mistakes did them in early on with an interception and a fumble only minutes apart in the first quarter. The Quakers wasted no time converting both miscues into touchdowns.
Carmine Casino runs the ball past Irvington defenders in the Blind Brook/Edgemont season-opening game on Friday, Sept. 6 at Edgemont. The newly merged team lost that contest 18-0.By Jake Radwaner
Greeley's first TD came at the 7:39 mark in the opening quarter following an interception at the Rams’ 39-yard line barely four minutes into the game. The Quakers quickly cashed in on a long pass play with their QB having enough time to bake a cake in the backfield.
And just like that, it was 7-0 and the Rams looked vulnerable to the Greeley passing game right off the bat.
Just a few minutes later, the Rams fumbled on the Quakers’ 43-yard line, Greeley recovered with 3:25 left in the first quarter and scored with 2:35 left on the clock. That means the Quakers’ passing game resulted in another TD less than a minute later.
And the pattern was set.
Off and running
The Quakers scored another TD less than a minute into the second quarter when it took them just two plays to score on another long pass. By then it was 20-0. And by the 8:15 mark in the third, the Quakers had scored again to make it 27-0 and then again with 2:40 left to up the score to 33-0 before the quarter ended.
And if you were keeping track of what was going on, the Rams’ only signs of life on offense besides Pauletti up the middle included a couple of long gainers by Jake Lopez and a rare pass connection to Scott Sullivan, one of the team's co-captains as well as the Rams’ catcher on the baseball team.
It was a very different story for the Quakers because Julian Asch passed for a TD and ran for another, Jameson Blakelee caught seven passes for 113 yards including two TDs from 21 and 38 yards out and Jason Kim and Ben Weinstein each got into the end zone on flashy running plays.
Silence of the Rams
All of that made it a long ride back home from the Greeley campus in Chappaqua back to the Port Chester campus for the silent Rams.
And if it's any consolation to the Rams, New York's National Football League pro Giants and Jets also lost their opening games and Notre Dame (college football's fifth ranked team nationally), a 28.5-point favorite, lost to lightly-regarded, unranked MAC foe Northern Illinois on a last-minute field goal in the shadow of the "Touchdown Jesus" statue at home in South Bend, Ind., of all hallowed grounds and places. And closer to home, the merged Blind Brook/Edgemont football team lost their season-opening first game together to Irvington 18-0 at Edgemont.
So, anything can happen in football. And there's still plenty of time for the Rams to turn things around, hopefully starting Saturday (9/14) at home at John Ryan Stadium against Albertus Magnus at 1:30 p.m.
Ditto the Blind Brook Trojans/Edgemont Panthers merged football team that will tackle Briarcliff under the Friday night lights at 7 p.m. Sept. 13 at Edgemont. And while one game does not a season make, it can get late early around here.
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