Ramble on Lafayette smothers LFO in 6-AAA debut
The Lafayette Ramblers had a 12-play, 5:30 drive in the first quarter on Friday night, but failed to put any points on the board.
And that was about all that went wrong in the first two quarters for the Orange-and-black.
Lafayette scored on six of its eight possessions in the first half, including a pair of one-play drives and a pair of two-play drives, as they rolled to a 43-7 home victory over LFO in the Region 6-AAA opener for both teams at Jack King Stadium.
Lafayette head coach Paul Ellis said he was glad to see his team “put it all together” on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
“We’ve been playing either one side of the ball or the other, really since I’ve been here, and I wanted to see us put it all together and they did (tonight),” he said. “I’m so proud. I can’t tell you how proud I am of them.”
Trey Taylor returned the game’s opening kickoff 44 yards to midfield, quarterback Jaylon Ramsey took off on a designed draw play for a 49-yard touchdown on the first snap from scrimmage and the Ramblers never looked back.
Ramsey ran for 175 yards on just seven carries, all in the first half. He added a 69-yard touchdown run on another quarterback draw and later scored from 11 yards out on an option play, both less than two minutes apart late in the first half, as Lafayette built a 43-0 halftime lead.
“Coach told us we had to make a change at Lafayette and we’ve got to treat this like a playoff game, so we came out here and did what we had to do,” Ramsey explained. “I couldn’t have done it without my line though. They played good and I like the way they’re blocking right now. I hope they keep it up.”
LFO’S offense found no room to run against a swarming Rambler defense, who came into the game determined to make amends for a less-thanstellar showing against Gordon Lee a week earlier.
The Ramblers held LFO to just two total yards in the opening two quarters and gave up just one first down.
The Warriors did themselves no favors either. They put the ball on the ground multiple times throughout the game and lost four fumbles, three in the first half, as Lafayette turned the miscues into three touchdowns. LFO also gave up a safety after having to pounce on a loose ball in the endzone following a high snap. Lafayette also had a scoring drive following the ensuing free kick.
Jamario Clements had a 14-yard scoring run, Taylor found paydirt on a 9-yard TD catch and Jacob Zwiger scored on a 5-yard scamper as the Ramblers rushed for 257 yards on 23 first-half carries. The second half was played with a running clock. LFO would prevent the shutout on its second possession of the third quarter. Quarterback Malachi Powell found a wide-open Jamillion Womble down the right sideline for a 26-yard scoring strike and Alec Gentry added the point-after with 2:45 left in the third period.
Clements added 45 yards on seven carries, while Ramsey also went 6 of 9 in the air for 46 yards to four different receivers. Jacob Brown connected on all five PAT’S he attempted, while a bad snap thwarted another extra point.
Austin Tucker, Kevin Kremb, Anthony Collins and Ben Maanum all recovered fumbles for the Ramblers.
“We made some changes schematically and I thought our kids responded,” Ellis added. “We had to move some guys around to fill in for (defensive back) Brent Minor, who was injured, and I thought they did a great job. Coach (Matt) Yarbrough, Coach (Tom) Langford and Coach (Brent) Martin put together a great game plan.
“These kids came out and executed. I’m proud of our defensive staff and our offensive staff too. I thought our (offensive) line played a lot better tonight. It was a terrific all-around win.”
LFO finished with just 111 yards of total offense. Powell was 4 of 10 passing for 59 yards, while Benji Valdes had a team-best 22 yards on four carries.
Lafayette (1-2, 1-0) will travel to Chatsworth this Friday to face Murray County, while LFO (0-3, 0-1) will be back at home for their annual Catoosa County clash with Ringgold.