Rams suffer tough loss to Laney in Bowl Game
By Patrick Cochran
In their final game of the season the Rams lost to Laney in the San Francisco Community College Bowl. Both teams featured high powered offenses that made for a fun spectacle.
Laney scored the game’s first two touchdowns but the Rams were able to respond with two touchdowns of their own. Quarterback Zach Masoli broke loose from the pocket and broke off a 29 yard touchdown run for the Rams first score midway through the first quarter. Masoli later got injured leading to quarterback Lavell McCullers coming off the bench to fill in.
Later in the first quarter running back Lorenzo Longwood busted past the line of scrimmage for a 1 yard touchdown the capped off an impressive 72 yard, eight play drive.
Tied up 14-14 at halftime the game would have an explosive second half that featured many big plays by both sides but was ultimately dominated by Laney.
Laney began the second half with an 86 yard touchdown thrown by quarterback Noah Suszckiwicz to wide receiver Sean Pinson.
Laney would add two more touchdowns, but miss two out of three of the extra points, to make the score 34-14.
But the Rams would not let themselves be silenced into the night so easily. On the kickoff return after the third touchdown running back Namane Modise juked and jived his way between Laney defenders and then turned on the burners to take ball to the endzone on a 90 yard kick return touchdown.
The Rams had two more touchdowns to finish the game. The first was an impressive pass from McCullers to wide receiver Easop Winston. Running down the right sideline Winston got good inside position on the cornerback before McCuller released the ball. McCullers threw a beautiful pass the sailed towards the end zone and Winston caught the ball in the back left corner while falling backwards on his butt.
Winston finished the day with 4 catches for 76 yards and a touchdown and even made an insane one handed catch the ultimately did not count since his feet weren’t inbounds.
“For me and Easop it just like playing catch,” said McCullers. “It’s so easy working with him.”
The Rams seemed to be making a comeback with the score now 34-28. They had hope, but that hope seemed to be shattered after an explosive 70 yard run by Laney running back John McDonald. On the big play McDonald got great blocking from his massive offensive line and was able to turn the corner and burn past Ram defenders to make his way towards the end zone.
“Laney just made plays, that’s the bottom line,” said head coach Jimmy Collins.
The final Rams touchdown came on another back time throw from McCuller this time to wide receiver Kevin Shaa for 44 yards.
Laney would have one more touchdown and then got a safety on the Rams to leave the final score at 49-35.
“We played really, really hard,” said Collins. “We just came up short which symbolizes the season.”
“It was a hard fought game by both sides,” said McCullers. McCullers, playing in his last game for City, threw for 184 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.
“We definitely left some big plays out there,” said Winston. “But we grinded hard but in the end we came up short. It’s a tough loss, us sophomores wanted to come out on top, but there isn’t another groups of guys I would want to suit up with right now besides my teammates. I told my freshman to hold it down next year, we have a lot of good guys coming in. This year was fun, and even though we didn’t repeat we still had a great time. Everything happens for a reason I guess.
“Our sophomores played very hard,” said Collins. “They are a great group.”
Collins feels that the team has a great shot at winning next season.
“We are retaining a great core group of guys and bringing in some good new players too.” said Collins.
There is always next season.