Rams stumble against Luhi Crusaders with a 40-7 grid loss under the lights at home
September 25, 2024 at 10:48 p.m.
The scoreboard told the final score of the Port Chester versus Long Island Lutheran (Luhi) home football game last Friday night (9/20). The scoreboard read Luhi 40, Rams 7.
But that only told part of the story.
The other parts: Luhi scored early and often.
And the Rams scored their only touchdown late on a short pass from Alexis (Ace) Morel to wide receiver Jeremy Noel with 43 seconds left in the game.
Three TD sequence
On the ensuing kickoff, the Luhi receiver ran the kick back from end zone to end zone for yet another TD in the game's dying moments.
And in an even stranger sequence, towards the end of the third quarter Luhi scored twice in less than a minute on two recovered fumbles at midfield only to the have the second TD called back because of an illegal block in the backfield. But it didn't matter. Because seconds later, Luhi scored another TD on a long pass.
That made the score 34-7 Luhi.
Quick strike attack
It gave yet another insight into Luhi's quick strike attack. And they wasted no time in attacking quickly.
They scored twice early in the first quarter with their passing game giving Luhi, also called the Crusaders, a 13-0 lead.
Their track team sprinter's speed gave them another TD in the second quarter. And they went into halftime leading 20-0.
Port Chester quarterback Alexis (Ace) Morel (#1) was under heavy pressure all night long on Sept. 20 from the Division 1-caliber Luhi line stocked with high-level collegiate recruits, but the Rams never backed down.By Joseph DeCarlo
The Crusaders doubled that total in the second half.
So it got late early.
No quit in Rams
A lesser team than the Rams would have been discouraged.
But the Rams aren't a lesser team.
They never quit. They never stopped trying. And they hung in there, going toe-to-toe against one of the state's top-ranked teams.
Luhi was ranked 10th in the state last year and this year's team looks just as good.
They play a national schedule. Their roster is stocked with three- and four-star recruits. They have two players on NFL (National Football League) pro rosters. They have players competing at every collegiate level. And they have linemen, pass receivers and a quarterback on their current roster being recruited by Division 1 schools like Michigan, Syracuse and West Virginia.
Leading Ram players
But Port Chester wasn't intimidated.
Rams fullback John Pauletti showed he could run against a stacked defense that knew he was coming up the middle, but that didn't stop Pauletti from racking up first down after first down. Morel didn't shy away from quarterback keeps even though the play had been scouted and he knew he was going to get hit and hit hard. And Jake Lopez kept grinding out short yardage, Scott Sullivan hauled in passes in traffic as did Noel. Xavier Tapia, Luis Granados and Alber Poroj more than held their own against Division 1-caliber linemen.
The Rams played hard up and down the roster. And did themselves, their school and their community proud.
Even when they lost.
The score was deceptive. Because it didn't reflect how hard the Rams tried and how well they played. They were outmanned, outgunned, out run, out passed and out of their depth.
And there is no denying they were out of their league against a team like the Crusaders, a prep school powerhouse that plays a grueling schedule that takes them from Delaware to Ohio and beyond. They have been Metro League independent champions. And are perennially one of the state's best teams.
The Rams play their own independent league schedule against similar-sized Westchester and Rockland teams. They are trying to turn around a losing football culture. They beat Albertus Magnus 33-17 and lost to Horace Greeley 34-7 so far this season. They are now 1-2 on the season. But it has only just turned to fall, the leaves are just starting to turn and fall, and there is plenty of football left to play. Tackling the Crusaders represented a step up, a big step up. And the Rams stumbled. But it was a learning experience. The Rams took their hits and hurts. But they walked away with their heads held high. Or should have. Because they played their young hearts out.
Lights on, off
The Rams learned a lot from tackling Luhi. They hope to put those lessons to good use in their next game away Friday night (9/27) under the lights against Peekskill at 6 p.m.
As for the local lights, Port Chester rented theirs for the game against the Crusaders. It made the field look like a dimly lit stage set with the lighting emphasis on the track with the gridiron partly in shadow. And maybe that was a symbolic foreshadowing of what was to come. Because Luhi ran wild and their passes seemed to come out of nowhere, seemingly dropping out of the night sky before landing in the hands of the Crusader receivers.
And what happened in between is mostly best remembered as forgotten. Except for how hard the Rams tried—and at least they got off the doughnut—sports jargon for zero—and escaped a shutout.
The moral behind using that doughnut image: Focus on the doughnut Not the hole in the middle showing all that is missing.
The bottom line: The Rams lost. But they weren't beaten.
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