Rams blanked in season opener

The Maricopa High School Rams dropped their home season opener, and their first game in Division 4A-II, to the Buckeye Union High School Hawks by a score of 38-0 on Friday evening at home.

Hauling in the opening kickoff, the Hawks started out the game by marching down the field in short order. The opening drive took five plays and was capped off by a 22-yard touchdown pass. On the drive, the Rams contributed by tacking on extra yards for a facemask penalty. This would become a common occurrence throughout the evening. Buckeye rounded the drive out with an extra point, bringing the score to 7-0.

“We made too many mental mistakes out there tonight,” Head Coach Gary Mattes said after the game. “We had a lot of poor execution because of it.”

After the Rams and Hawks exchanged possessions, those mental mistakes led to a blocked Maricopa punt, resulting in terrific field position for the Hawks. Taking possession at the Maricopa 16-yard line, the team was able to push the ball into the end zone, taking 7 plays to do so, as the Ram defense challenged them on every play. The Hawks failed to make the extra point on this attempt, leading to a sore of 13-0.

“Our defense actually did a really good job tonight,” said Mattes, “but they were in a bad position all night. It’s really hard to recover when you’re in a hole like that.”

But the defense was not flawless. Consecutive four-down sets by each team found the Hawks in possession of the ball at their own 15-yard line. Buckeye began to move down the field reclaiming large chunks of territory with a 26-yard run, a couple of quick passes for small gains, and finally a 40-yard touchdown pass. The 2-point attempt was stopped, but the Hawks had already increased their lead to 19-0.

After the touchdown, the Hawks kicked off a shallow pooch kick that landed in the hands of Junior Brian Nechamkin, who returned it to the Buckeye 13-yard line before being tackled by a swarm of Hawks. With nearly 2 minutes remaining on the clock, it seemed certain the Rams would score. However, mental errors again cost the Rams. They were called on a string of penalties that resulted in more than 30 lost yards. The penalties effectively took them out of field-goal range and continued to allow time to bleed off the clock. Ultimately, they were not able to capitalize on terrific field position.

Hoping to build on their late momentum of the first half, the Rams took possession of the ball on their own 22-yard line at the start of the new half. However, on third down, quarterback Patrick Davis through a lateral pass that the receiver dropped. It was picked up by a defender who ran into the end zone for another Buckeye score. The Hawks again failed to convert the 2-point attempt, so their lead stretched to 25-0.

Each team then took possession a number of times, with neither able to mount much in the way of offense. With time running out in the 3rd Quarter, however, the Hawks were able to string together some quick plays that resulted in a 38-yard touchdown reception and an extra point, bringing the score to 31-0.

Following the score, the Rams took possession on their own 32-yard line. With replacement quarterback Travis Brown taking over the offense, the Rams quickly had losses of 1 and 2 yards, but were ultimately hurt by a botched snap. The resulting fumble was recovered by the Hawks, who immediately went to work on a short field. In six quick plays, they were able to close the distance to the end zone and capped the score with an extra point, rounding out their scoring at 38-0.

The Rams attempted to put together a late game scoring drive, taking possession with 2:44 remaining in the game. The quickly proceeded to move down field on 25 and 8 yard runs from Brown. This was added by an additional 8-yard reception by Kendal Morris, as well as a 38-yard connection between Brown and Morris. With only a few seconds remaining on the clock, Morris made one final attempt to connect with a Ram receiver, but the final pass of the game fell incomplete, and the shutout was finalized.

“We’re going to have to go back to the drawing board and really polish up everything across the board,” said Mattes. “I told the kids that we need to use this loss as a way to make ourselves stronger for next week.”

Next up for the Rams is another home game on Friday, Sept. 11, against Youngker High School, also from the Buckeye Union High School District. The Roughriders will also enter the game with a record of 0-1 after dropping their season opener 7-38 against Glendale High School on Friday evening.

Photo by David Vargas