Ravens coach wanted new team to gain experience
‘Now we have to wait nine more months’
With his team just having been picked apart by the McMaster Marauders in the finale of an eightgame season in which the Carleton Ravens lost by as many as 67 points and by an average of 36, nobody would have blamed head coach Steve Sumarah for being thankful that Year 1 had finally ended.
It was that kind of season, one that will be seen as humorous by future Ravens teams. Just not anytime soon. Even so, Sumarah wanted more. “No,” he said quickly and emphatically. “Three more games would be fun. It would give us a chance to keep building. Now we have to wait nine more months.”
“This was everything I thought and more. I’d do it all again. We knew the challenges we had, and we set ourselves up for them. I loved the challenge of doing it.”
With the fifth-ranked Marauders needing to win by 14 to ensure an Ontario University Athletics playoff quarter-final home game against the Ottawa Gee-Gees, the outcome of Saturday’s game against the Ravens was never in doubt.
McMaster’s Kasean Davis-Reynolds scored his first of two touchdowns 9:04 into the first quarter and, in the rainy conditions, the Ravens never really threatened.
In an indicator of the day and the season, Sumarah sent the Ravens offence back on the field for third-and -inches late in the first half, and they Ravens couldn’t get it done.
On the very next play, McMaster punched it in on a seven-yard run by Declan Cross. Add a couple of safeties and another field goal and it was 31-0 by halftime.
The good news was that Carleton had more than a dozen prize recruits on the sidelines for the game. That, two more strong recruiting classes and additional experience for current Ravens should lift Carleton up the OUA ladder by 2015 or so.
More than 90 per cent of the 2013 roster comprised first- and secondyear players.
“The bar has to go up,” Sumarah said. “Come next August, if we were to go with the same bunch again and not bring anyone in, we would be better, sure.
“But our goal is to get 20-25 recruits in here for next year and keep building. That’s a far cry from the 80 recruits we had to bring in here this year.
“We have get that consistency in our play, and, when we do get that, it will be more about us and what we can do than about (opponents).”
Nobody said the learning curve wouldn’t be steep for these Ravens, Carleton’s first team after 15 years out of the sport.
Penalties. Missed assignments. Difficulty making substitutions. Dropped passes. Missed blocks. Failure to break tackles.
The first season back had lots of everything, most of it bad.
The best chance at a win came in Game 2 against perennial patsy Waterloo. Instead, the Warriors picked up their only victory of the season by a 47-8 score.
Sumarah said that game showed Ravens coaches how far their team had to go. The season began with a 71-4 shellacking by Western.
The Ravens seven times scored 14 or fewer points, three times in single digits.
Their season best on defence was 35 points against the Gee-Gees. Other scores were 44, 45, 47, 48, twice 50.