Injury to Rama proves costly for Cougars in loss
EAST MARLBOROUGH » The importance of quarterback play isn’t in doubt these days, even at the high school level. And on Friday in, in round one of the District 1 Class 5A playoffs, it proved to be the big difference in Unionville’s 2313 win over visiting Springfield.
Longhorn’s senior quarterback Matt McCloskey was the game’s leading rusher, scored both of Unionville’s touchdowns, and amassed 174 yards of total offense. His counterpart, junior Jake Rama, had a terrific start for the Cougars, but he went down with an unspecified injury early in the second quarter.
“When you are in the playoffs, everybody wants to be able to play with their best guys,” said Unionville head coach Pat Clark.
The win propels the ’Horns (101) into the district quarterfinal, where they will play the winner of Saturday’s clash between No. 6 Academy Park and No. 11 Oxford. Springfield’s season ends with a 4-7 mark.
“For a first playoff game for some of our guys, I thought it was a solid effort,” Clark said. “We were efficient on offense, the defense played real physical, and (kicker) Brian Dym was great for us. In all three phases, we played well enough.
Rama went 8-for-8 and guided the Cougars to an early lead. But he was blindsided by Ethan Bennink on a cornerback blitz, lost the football and never returned to the game. His replacement, senior Tom Walls, had to come in cold.
“We have the next-guy-up mentality, and Tommy (Walls) is that next guy, and I thought he did some things well,” Springfield coach Chris Britton said. “It was his first snaps in a long time. He got warmer as the game went on.”
Right out of the gate Rama completed three passes to senior wideout Robby Luogo in the game’s first possession, and that set the stage for a 25-yard scoring run by senior running back Connor Roche. But the Longhorns responded immediately, marching 60-yards in nine-plays to tie it on McCloskey’s 1-yard run.
“That drive was real important even though it’s a long game,” McCloskey said. “We’ve been in situations like that before and we know we have to keep our cool.”
Unionville added a pair of Dym field goals from 35- and 30-yards, with the second coming after Bennink’s sack and forced fumble was recovered by teammate Ryan Knightly. It was 13-7 at the half.
Junior defensive back Tucker Opdahl pounced on a fumble midway through the third quarter, which led to another Dym field goal, this time from 25-yards out. And then early in the final period, McCloskey capped off a scoring march with a 19-yard run.
McCloskey finished with 108 rushing yards on 20 attempts, and added 66 more yards through the air. He finished the regular season as the fourth leading ground gainer in the Ches-Mont league
“I thought we did a good job at times and then he would pop out the back door.,” Britton said of McCloskey. ” He’s a good player.”.
Walls was 14-for-31 for 113 yards. Luongo finished with 13 catches for 113 yards, and a late TD. Roche wound up with 91 yards on the ground on 17 carries.
“Our kids don’t give up, and I’m proud of them for that,” Britton said. “We had four different guys go down and they are leaders of our team. It would be easy for our guys to put their heads down, but they didn’t.”