What a difference a week makes. Just one week after celebrating a shutout victory, the shoe was on the other foot for the Ravenna Ravens’ football team when they were defeated 35-0 by Revere last Friday evening at Portage Community Bank Stadium’s Gilcrest Field.
“It does not feel good,” said Coach Brian Coman. “Offensively, defensively, and special teams, we just got beat up on Friday. We have to regroup. It is on me. My guys were not ready and it is on me.”
Through the first two games of the season, the Ravens (1-2, 0-0) had hung their hat on their defense by allowing only 14 points through eight quarters of play. Last Friday, Ravenna’s defense struggled to set the tone as the Minutemen engineered a nine-play, 80-yard opening drive capped off by a six-yard touchdown run by senior tailback/linebacker Rowan Klein, pushing Revere ahead 7-0.
The Ravens’ offense could not respond, going three-and-out on their first two drives of the game and Revere pushed the lead to 21-0, with the 5-foot-8 Klein and senior quarterback Luke Farris fueling the running game.
Klein scored his second touchdown of the game on a seven-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and then added another touchdown in the second quarter, scoring from three yards out.
The first-year coach acknowledged the Ravens’ defense had their hands full trying to stop Klein and the 6-foot-2 Farris on the ground.
“It looked pretty hard,” he noted. “Sometimes we were out of position, and we are going to get that fixed as a defense. When we were out of position as a defense, they made good plays and had a good group up front that blocks well and their wideouts were blocking well so we have to get off of blocks and they did a good job over there.”
After finally stopping Revere in the second quarter on their fourth drive and taking over on offense, junior quarterback C.J. Ross was strip-sacked on the first play and sophomore defensive/offensive lineman R.J. Baker picked up the ball and returned it to the end zone for a 48-yard fumble recovery touchdown.
On the ensuing drive, the Ravens were held to another three-and-out on their side of the field and junior punter Jose Carpenter’s punt was blocked by Revere junior linebacker/tailback Miles Hunter. The blocked punt rolled into the end zone and senior defensive/offensive lineman Joe Sunkin recovered it for another touchdown, stretching the Minutemen’s lead to 35-0 before the half.
According to Coman, it was a bitter pill to swallow that the Ravens’ mistakes resulted in Revere touchdowns in a game where they were already struggling to slow down Revere’s offense.
“We had some mistakes and then they got the ball back and scored again and before we knew it the game was 35-0 at the half,” he added.
With Revere holding a lead greater than 30 points in the second half, it triggered the running block and although the Ravens’ defense prevented Revere from scoring another touchdown, the offense never gained any momentum, leading to Ravenna’s first shutout defeat of the season.
“We have to get better all-around,” said Coman. “Everything looked a mess today but we have to get better blocking especially on the outside. We have got guys that may break loose then a cornerback tackles them because we do not have guys blocking on the outside.”
Coman said as great as the defense had played in the first two games of the season, the loss against Revere magnified some of the defensive issues it still needed to work on.
“There is a learning curve,” he said. “You just cannot walk out on the field and think you have made it. You have to work every second in general and every second during practice and have to make sure that you get into film and know what the opponents are going to do.”
Although it was a disappointing loss, Coman said the loss would serve as a nice test of Ravenna’s mental toughness.
“As coaches we are going to make sure we keep our kids going,” he said. “It might be the little things, but I am still making sure we keep our heads held high running off the field. Just like we won with class on Aug. 30, we have to lose with class this week.”
Ravenna will begin Metro Athletic Conference play when it welcomes conference foe Norton to town this Friday at 7 p.m.
