ALMEDIA – Last season, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech put together its first winning season since 2007, and it did so largely on the strength of its running game, specifically running back Braxtyn Brown, who amassed over 2,000 rushing yards on the season.
Brown graduated after last season, but even so, the success of this year’s edition of the Rams will largely depend on how well they run the ball.
On Saturday, CMVT struggled to put together a consistent ground game in its home opener against Morrisville, and also turned the ball over six times. Although just one of those takeaways was turned into points by the Bulldogs, that along with a limited ground game proved to be too much for the Rams to overcome despite their defense keeping them in the game for most of it, and CMVT fell to Morrisville 29-8.
“They’re a quality team, they’re aggressive and they’re fast. I think they were just getting to the gaps before we were getting to the gaps to block them,” said CMVT coach Mark Varner. “They were just a step ahead of us all game. We can’t rely on throwing the ball two out of three downs. We have to run the ball, so we’ll work on it and figure it out. We’re a better team when we’re running first and throwing off of that.”
The Rams were limited to just 36 yards on the ground. Myles Koser threw for 164 yards on 12-of-23 passing, but he was intercepted four times – a few of which were off tipped passes, and the Rams also lost a pair of fumbles.
Running the ball was made even tougher by losing a pair of offensive linemen in the second half as Jacob Fosse and Eric Robinson both left the game with injuries. The Rams were already without starting tackle Lucious Showers due to an injury sustained in practice earlier in the week.
“We came in banged up, got a little bit more banged up, but that’s no excuse. We have to find the next guy up and keep plugging away and moving forward,” said Varner. “I thought we played them better than we did last year (a 46-20 loss), but credit to them. They’re very fast and have some good athletes and that just got us today.”
CMVT’s defense kept them in the game for the first half by forcing two turnovers of its own. The Rams managed to run 29 plays to just 18 for Morrisville, and the Bulldogs had just three first half possessions. On the one that didn’t end in a turnover, Morrisville put together an 11-play, 55-yard drive that took 5:31 and ended with an eight-yard touchdown pass from Merik Johnson to Alex Brown for the only score of the first half.
The Rams had only four first half possessions. They turned it over on downs after chewing up nearly half of the first quarter on their first drive of the game, but were stopped at the Morrisville 27. They punted on their next drive, and then their final two ended on Morrisville’s side of the field on interceptions.
Morrisville received the second half kickoff and took over at their own 37, and then on the third play from scrimmage, Shakur Dismukes hit the gap and accelerated past the rest of CMVT’s defenders for a 48-yard touchdown run to put the Bulldogs up by two scores.
It remained a two-score game after the Bulldogs missed a 33-yard field goal following another takeaway from the Rams, but CMVT’s turnovers finally caught up with it on their subsequent possession as Zayden Gomez picked off Koser’s pass and returned it 32 yards for a touchdown to put Morrisville up by three scores at the 5:13 mark of the third quarter.
“They wore us down. It was only 7-0 at halftime, so we were right there, but we lost a couple of kids to injury, and then they hit some big plays,” said Varner.
The Rams did manage to finish a drive and get on the scoreboard midway through the fourth quarter when Koser hit Blake Sponenberg down the left sideline for a 29-yard touchdown pass, then hit Matthew Allen for the two-point conversion.
Morrisville answered with a six-play, 43-yard drive capped by an I’zire Caraway 2-yard touchdown pass in the waning minutes of the game. Caraway finished with 91 yards on the ground to lead the Bulldogs while Dismukes had 89, as the Bulldogs finished with 157 rushing yards.
Morrisville 29, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 8
Morrisville (2-0) 0 7 15 7 – 29
CMVT (1-1) 0 0 0 8 – 8
Second quarter
6:40 – (M) Alex Brown 8-yard pass from Merik Johnson (Sprague kick), 11-55, 5:31
Third quarter
11:09 – (M) Shakur Dismukes 48-yard run (Sprague kick), 3-63, :51
5:13 – (M) Zayden Gomez 32-yard interception return (Johnson run)
Fourth quarter
6:01 – (VT) Blake Sponenberg 29-yard pass from Myles Koser (Allen pass from Koser), 5-42, 2:03
2:20 – (M) I’zire Caraway 2-yard run (Sprague kick), 6-43, 3:41
Statistics
M VT
First downs 14 11
Rushes-net yards 32-157 28-36
Passing yardage 27 173
Passing 3-8-1-1 13-24-1-4
Fumbles-lost 4-1 3-2
Penalties-yards 8-50 4-35
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Morrisville: I’zire Caraway (14-91-1), Shakur Dismukes (8-89-1), Merik Johnson (5-(-5)), Sean Eddings (2-6), Team (2-(-27)), Julian Hennessy (1-3); CMVT: Tyson Brown (14-31), Charlie Sego (7-10), Myles Koser (6-(-23)), Blake Sponenberg (1-18)
PASSING: Morrisville: Merik Johnson (3-8-27-1-1); CMVT: Myles Koser (12-23-164-1-4), Axton Koser (1-1-9-0-0)
RECEIVING: Morrisville: I’zire Caraway (2-19), Alex Brown (1-8-1); CMVT: Axton Koser (6-73), Blake Sponenberg (4-79-1), Tyson Brown (2-12), Myles Koser (1-9)