UPDATED: Sept. 2, 2018 at 9:38 a.m.

Jamesville-DeWitt drove down the field with less than two minutes to go in the game. Adam Honis, on his final pass of the night, threw a 30-yard touchdown to Patrick Murad. The score showed life in the Red Rams team. But it wasn’t enough.

“It’s because they were in a soft coverage, a prevent coverage, and they gave up stuff underneath,” head coach Eric Ormond said. “That’s all that was. No moral victories there.”

It was against that “soft” coverage that J-D found its most success passing the ball. Honis finished 17-30 passing with an interception. In the first game under a new offensive coordinator, with Kevin Kalfass’ departure to Central Square, the Red Rams couldn’t put enough together to beat Section IV’s Susquehanna Valley. The Sabers won, 28-19, and the Red Rams offense came on too late.

Jamesville-DeWitt’s first drive marched the Red Rams down the field quickly and into field goal range. Though the Red Rams would throw an interception at the one-yard line following a fake field goal, J-D was able to make the first strike on its next drive. J-D quarterback Adam Honis hit Kaleb McCloud a 22-yard score.

The Sabers bounced right back, though. Utilizing a triple-option offense to great success, including a few carries where Billy Sheridan bounced off tacklers to get extra yardage, it was a quarterback keeper that knotted it up. Jarred Freije decided to take care of matters himself and powered in, right up the gut, from two yards out to tie the game at 7.

In the second half, the Carrier Dome heat got to the Red Rams. Multiple players ended up on the ground at the end of plays with cramps. With only 27 healthy guys, according to Honis, the depth wasn’t there to overcome those cramps.

“We’re not very deep,” Honis said. “So when kids cramp it hurts, and we saw that in the game.”

J-D had its chances. A touchdown from Honis to Murad in the third quarter would have tied the game, if not for a missed extra point. But then Freije ran for a second touchdown from two-yards out. Honis had a stretch of four incompletions in six passes as the Red Rams tried to get back in the game. And the Sabers got a touchdown to practically ice the ballgame with 1:45 to play and a 15-point lead.

As the clock wound down, one loud voice could be heard from the Red Rams’ student section.

“Every year, we’re never good enough,” the student said.

Honis said that there were “a whole bunch of things” that the Red Rams needed to work on. But there’d be more chances to bounce back when the league schedule got underway for J-D. But Ormond stayed blunt.

“Too many on the list to be able to mention individually,” said Ormond of what J-D needs to improve. “Every facet of the game, from an execution standpoint, fundamentals, the whole nine yards.”

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this article, Eric Ormond’s name was misspelled. The Daily Orange regrets this error. 

Published on September 1, 2018 at 8:39 pm

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3