St. Peter's: The End of a Season

The SPA varsity football season began in August with a Football-rama and ended Thursday night with a playoff game. Our team was small--only fourteen boys--but full of spirit, and the Rams ended the year with only two regular season losses.

The last regular game took place October 25th with the St. Peter's Rams facing the St. James Chargers. St. James had St. Peter's outnumbered and outsized, but our boys played hard, and we were proud of them.

So even though the Rams didn't win that game, they were successful enough to make it to the playoffs this past Thursday. Once again, they found themselves up against the big blue wall. 

This time the contest took place on St. James's field, and our boys in navy fought hard and made us proud. Drew Tison (#5) scored a touchdown for the Rams, and Mills Thompson (#44) showed the crowd how he can hustle when he picked up what he thought was a fumble and raced toward the goal line. Too bad that was just an incomplete pass. But still, my hat's off to him. Way to go, Mills!

As hard as our Rams played, they just couldn't match the size of the St. James team. Not only do the Chargers have a few behemoths on their offensive line, but they also have three times as many players as the Rams do. 

 

Look past our Rams players at the light blue team against the fence.That's just some of St. James's backup. We have three boys on the sideline at any given time, and that's if nobody's injured. Most of our team plays both offense and defense. That shows the stamina our Rams have, as well as their teamwork. 

 

I think our boys won as many games as they did because they learned early on how to work as a team. When Ian Heap injured his foot, removing him from the offensive line for several games, Lawson Remler toed the line, even though he had trained to play defense. When Adam King injured his thumb during the homecoming game, Drew Tison stepped in as quarterback. Consistently, Adam relied on a number of offensive linemen--Garrett Ducey, Drew Tison, Matt Lowenthal, Joseph Dodd, Zach Strickland, Aiden Anderson--to carry the ball to the end zone. Center Ryan Ducey found himself in the middle of all the action as he hiked the ball and then had to block the opponent's players, no matter their size. Mills Thompson too. One of our largest players, Mills put himself in harm's way every single play, as his job was to hold the opponent back while his teammates advanced the ball. As for the defensive line, I lost count of how many pass interceptions Lawson had. When Blessed Sacrament's Bigfoot-looking offense pushed its way toward the goal line, Kado Dang threw himself against players twice his size, showing no fear and bringing them down like drunken giants. One of the most joyous plays came at the end of a game against Bethesda when Cameron Parish, a fullback, found himself in an unusual position. Adam handed the ball off to him, pointed toward the end zone, and said, "Run that way." Cameron did--right between the goal posts. 

 

They were a good team, and many of them are excited about advancing to high school ball next year. In the post-game huddle, Coach King asked each boy, "Are you going to play high school ball?" Every boy answered yes. And then the coach asked Lawson, who replied, "No. I'm going to play lacrosse." 

 

That's my boy.

 

So I have watched Lawson's last official football game. For the last time, I've put a football helmet in the dishwasher. I'll no longer have to try to fold a pair of football pants. And those magic gloves? 

Now they're rank as crab trap bait. I think we'll retire them as well. We'll still have basketball, and next year I'm sure I'll be cleaning a lacrosse helmet in my Whirlpool. But Lawson's said goodbye to football. For someone who joined the team just so that it would have enough players, I think he's done an exceptional job. Just like the rest of the Rams.