Rams ground-and-pound game overpowers Magnus with Pauletti scoring 3 TDS in a winning football opus
September 19, 2024 at 12:59 a.m.
It was Port Chester's ground-and-pound game against Albertus Magnus's run-and-gun approach to football. And when the dust settled, the Rams won 27-14. While Magnus had a very good quarterback and by far the better passing game, the Rams had the best player on the field in senior fullback/defensive end John Pauletti who ran over, around and through the Falcons like he was a human combination of a gridiron bulldozer, tractor and Ferrari.
There was no way Magnus could stop Pauletti even when they knew what was coming.
To be or not to be
But an errant ballot could. Stop Pauletti, that is, from being one of a golden dozen players being voted on as the area's best player of the week even though he had been selected as one of the best of the best. But that voting glitch didn't affect the way Pauletti and the Rams ran away with the sun-splashed home game against Magnus last Friday (9/13).
Pauletti turned John Ryan Stadium into his own stop-and-go version of the Indy 500 at the Indianapolis Raceway while understatedly giving credit to his teammates for all the good things that happened.
And a lot of good things happened. No matter how the fan vote went for the area's best football athlete of the week in the Lower Hudson Valley, with Pauletti in and out of the running as one of Lohud's top 12 candidates because of a voting machine glitch that left his name off the final ballot despite his being named as part of that select galaxy of stars.
But to err is human, even error by machine, and to forgive is divine.
Action recap
All of which takes some explaining.
The long and short of it is that Pauletti ran for 249 yards on 21 carries and three touchdowns of varying lengths (five- and eight-yard power runs up the middle and a 60-yard ramble in which he knocked over would-be Magnus tacklers like they were bowling pins and he was the human wrecking ball). Junior Alexis Morel scored on a short yardage quarterback keep and senior lineman Luis Granados kicked three PATs (points after touchdowns) and showed plenty of leg on punts and kickoffs.
Add to the mix solid two-way line play from junior co-captains Alber (The Hulk) Poroj and Manny Diaz, a stop on a two-point conversion try by senior co-captain Scott Sullivan (who also had a key interception as did Morel and running back Billy Villanova who showed good speed on a rare 22-yard sweep that resulted in the Rams’ second longest gain). Yet another highlight: the hard hits from senior tight-end Xavier Tapia that continually clipped the Falcons’ wings whenever they tried to take flight in their fight to get back in the game.
The romp that wasn't
But Magnus couldn't get back in the game. That’s because the Rams’ unsung defense stepped up and Pauletti was virtually an unstoppable one-man Ram offense. He carried the ball an estimated 90% of the time (at least) starting from the get-go when he ran for first downs on two of his first three carries, setting up Morel for the Rams’ first TD on a short QB keep less than two minutes into the game. So, at the 10:15 mark, it looked like it was going to be a Port Chester romp. Until it wasn't.
Because the Falcons had a very good quarterback in Vinny Piscitelli and the Rams didn't have a very good pass rush. So the result was Piscitelli would take the snap from center and dash wide right or left, eluding tacklers, buying the time to hit cutting receivers who ran rings around the Rams’ secondary. He marched the Falcons down the field with pass completions aided and abetted by the help of two Ram penalties.
The close first quarter
The result was Magnus scored twice, but their first TD was called back because of illegal motion in the backfield, negating the score. But only temporarily. Because Vinny P kept dancing away from the Ram tacklers, his receivers kept cutting and he hit a receiver on a slant wide right all alone in the end zone. Magnus went for the two-point conversion. And the Rams stopped them cold. So the first quarter ended with the Rams up by just a single point 7-6.
Rams quarterback Alexis (Ace) Morel smoothly hands off to workhorse fullback John Pauletti who ran for 249 yards on 21 carries during Port Chester’s home win over Magnus.Photo by Andy Richardson
But the choreography was essentially set for the rest of the game. The Falcons would pass. The Rams would run. Or more accurately, Pauletti would run. And run. And run. And then do it all over again. And then run some more.
In essence, except for an occasional Morel keeper, an infrequent Jake Levy short gainer, a rare Villanova sweep and nary a Morel pass thrown to top tier receivers like Sullivan, Tapia and Jeremy Noel, Pauletti was the Rams’ offense. And with nobody else to focus on, Magnus could key on him. And they did. And he took hit after hit. And kept coming back for more. While grinding out the yards. Over and over again. Almost always running for a gain.
The scenario unfolds
It reached the point where Pauletti became the Rams’ do everything back with Morel smoothly handing the ball off to Pauletti, their seamless flow the result of countless intersecting factors coming together, the line shifting as one, the ball snapping, the backs moving together in one seemingly simple yet extraordinarily complex synergistic system revolving around the Rams’ credo: One team, one goal, play together, give it their all and see how far they could go with players as diverse as Jefferson (Swiss Army Knife) Castaneda at cornerback, outside linebacker and backup quarterback and hard-hitting Brian Escobar at middle linebacker.
And for this game against Magnus at least, it was all coming together, all working. And that was how the scenario played out.
Magnum opus as stars align
Piscitelli would dance the dance in the backfield for Magnus and keep the Falcons close. But Pauletti would dominate on offense with his three TDs—the first with 1:57 left in the second quarter to send the Rams into halftime with a 13-7 lead, the second TD that 60-yard ramble off right tackle at the 7:07 mark in the third quarter which ended with a joyous high-kicking TD dance with his blockers in the end zone and the third touchdown a short sprint for paydirt with something like 43 seconds left in the quarter. That was enough to hold off the late Falcon passing threats at the start and near the end of the decisive fourth quarter.
Port Chester High School cheerleaders perform a two-headed conga line finale to their repertoire at the Rams’ Friday the 13th victory over Albertus Magnus.Photo by Andy Richardson
The result evened the Rams’ record at 1-1 after losing their league opener 34-7 away to Horace Greeley. The morale-boosting win also gave the Ram cheerleaders a lot to cheer about with a repertoire of twirls and swirls, pyramids and a celebratory two-headed conga line finale that was head and shoulders above anything else they had tried before, a gridiron equivalent of a Broadway show's 11 o'clock number.
Lohud takes notice
The Rams’ overall result was also enough to attract the attention of Lohud, which selected Pauletti as one of 12 candidates for its Player of the Week Award as the best players in Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties. But when it came to voting for the best of the best, only 11 players were listed—and Pauletti wasn't one of them due to some kind of mechanical glitch. So he didn't get the votes. At least not this time. But there will almost certainly be other times because Pauletti is already emerging as one of the best all-around backs in the independent league that Port Chester plays in. He could well be one of the best in all of Section 1 and beyond.
Friday night lights
Port Chester and Lohud will get their next chance to see how good Pauletti and P.C. can be when the Rams step up in class to tackle non-league prep school powerhouse Long Island Lutheran (Luhi) Friday (9/20) at 6:30 p.m. under the lights at home.
Luhi, consistently having one of the top-ranked basketball teams in the nation, has a football team with something to prove with several three- and four-star recruits out to show how good they are on the gridiron as well. Which means the game will be a big test for the Rams. And how they do could well determine how the rest of the season plays out.
As Pauletti goes, so go the Rams. But he's going to need a lot more help from his unsung friends and a more diverse playbook this time around because Luhi ain't no Albertus Magnus. Unless that happens, it's going to be a long night for Port Chester football. Because Pauletti almost certainly can't do it alone. Or can he?
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