The Windham Bombers’ football team’s first duel against the Cardinal Huskies as Northeastern Athletic Conference rivals earned them their first victory of the season, beating the Huskies 42-6 last Friday evening at Ed Liddle Field.
“I am proud of our guys for getting our first win,” said Bombers’ Coach Jake Eye. “That is the biggest thing. We felt like coming into the game that this was a game we could compete in.”
The Bombers (1-4, 1-1) now have a new conference foe to contend with in the NAC, with Cardinal (0-5, 0-1) joining the conference after being a member of the Chagrin Valley Conference for the last several decades. In their NAC opener, Windham welcomed the Huskies into the conference with a resounding victory.
For the Bombers, their first meeting against their new conference rival ends their winless start to the season. According to the five-year coach, although the Bombers’ first victory comes at the halfway point of the season, he said that his squad has been tested rigorously as its first four opponents have a combined 16-4 record.
“We were 0-4 coming into this game and if you look at our opponents’ record, there are two teams undefeated that are picked to go 10-0 and the other two teams have two losses, so our first four games were against solid opponents,” he noted.
On Friday, each team was plagued by a slow start with several mental miscues causing numerous penalties.
It appeared that Cardinal would strike first in the opening period after engineering a drive that brought them to Windham’s 2 but after some pre-snap penalties, the Bombers’ defense stiffened to make a goal line stand, forcing a turnover on downs and took over at their 4.
The Bombers needed only three plays to travel 96 yards and scored the game’s first touchdown, with junior tailback/defensive back DeJuan Ramsey scoring on a 12-yard touchdown run, pushing Windham ahead 8-0 after converting on a two-point conversion.
Eye acknowledged what a significant momentum shift it was for the Bombers’ defense to stop Cardinal at the goal line.
“That set the tone for us in the first half,” he added. “It helped us overcome some early penalties that cost us. I don’t want to say the word bend don’t break but against an opponent like Cardinal, for us to get a stop there was a big for us.”
Although the Huskies swung the tide back in their favor when junior quarterback/linebacker Jaiden Fix delivered a 70-yard touchdown screen pass to sophomore running back/linebacker Mason Thistlethwaite, trimming the lead to 8-6 after the Huskies failed on the two-point conversion, the Bombers assumed control by unlocking their rushing attack.
The 5-foot-10 Ramsey sparked Windham’s offense by scoring two more touchdowns in the half, including a 95-yard interception return, allowing the Bombers to build a commanding lead. The interception return touchdown earned Ramsey some redemption coming after fumbling a punt return on his own 13 and turning the ball over to the Huskies.
According to Ramsey, he instantly wanted to atone for his miscue on the punt return.
“When I dropped the punt, I was like ‘That was on me, so I have to make a play’,” he noted. “They threw it to my side, and I went to go get it and it was a touchdown.”
Ramsey finished the game with three rushing touchdowns for 102 yards in addition to his interception return touchdown.
“DeJuan is one of the toughest kids we have for his size,” said Eye. “I can remember him playing with a broken collarbone in junior high for two games. He is still not 100% but he is still one of the toughest kids we have.
Sophomore quarterback Bryan Smithberger scored on a five-yard touchdown run near the end of the second half, pushing the Bombers’ lead to 30-6 and Ramsey scored his fourth touchdown of the game on a 45-yard touchdown run in the third quarter to trigger the running clock.
Although the Bombers overpowered Cardinal after a challenging first period, Eye did not downplay the glaring stat which showed that the Bombers committed 23 penalties in the game.
“I was extremely frustrated at halftime,” he said. “We have to be patient. The penalties were atrocious, and the lack of discipline was on me. That is going to change on Monday.”
Windham will hit the road and face NAC foe Matthews in Trumbull County on Friday at 7 p.m.
Meanwhile, the Huskies will welcome John Adams to Richard A. Moss Field for a non-conference duel in Middlefield on Friday at 7 p.m.
