OAKLAND — The Southern Rams’ football program has felt adrift at sea for several years, but the tides in Oakland may be shifting.
Coming off an emotional, close win over a Tucker County squad that had beaten the Rams by 50 a year ago, the Rams dominated the visiting Uniontown Red Raiders in a 33-13 thrashing on Friday night.
Senior quarterback Jacob Brown finished with 134 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries while fullback Pierce Ramos added a game-high 181 yards and a score on 20 totes to highlight a rushing attack that produced over 300 yards.
The success on the ground highlighted the main theme of the contest — Southern dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Though second-year head coach Dave McLaughlin acknowledged the program still has a ways to go to get to the level of physicality they need to reach, the last couple of weeks were a major step forward.
“We’re getting there,” McLaughlin said. “I’d still like to see us be a little bit more physical in certain positions, but we really have improved in that. When you get in the weight room and in the off season you get stronger and you come out here and you start pushing some people around, you realize ‘Hey, it did work!’
“There’s areas that we need to improve in, but there’s a lot less areas of improvement to worry about compared to last year.”
One area of concern seemed to be addressed during Southern’s first offensive series. After Uniontown scored within just three minutes of the opening kickoff thanks to a 15-yard pass by Brayden Hinzy to Nate Hice, the Rams responded with a 17-play, 62-yard drive that took up the rest of the first quarter.
On the first play of the second period, Jacob Brown tied the game on a one-yard QB sneak. Sean Eiswert’s extra point made it 7-all with 11:58 to go in the half.
“I thought our kids responded well,” McLaughlin said. “I think we set the tone on that drive because from then on, we were the more physical team. You could tell as the game went on that we were gaining more confidence and they were getting worn down, and Pierce Ramos had a great night for us.”
Ramos was the team’s feature back on the night, especially in the first half when he racked up 101 of his 181 yards. He was also a catalyst on Southern’s second drive of the second quarter which culminated in a 2-yard keeper by Brown at the 6:04 mark to make it 13-7 (two-point conversion failed).
The Rams would blow the game wide open in the third quarter. They started the half with the ball and produced chunk plays of 17, 15, eight, eight and six yards by Brown, Hayden Harvey, Hayden Williams, Harvey and then Williams, respectively, with the last carry resulting in a touchdown by Williams.
Southern then extended its lead to 26-7 with 3:09 to go in the third when Ramos took a delayed draw, juked around a defender in open space and sprinted 66 yards to paydirt.
The Rams added one more score in the form of an 18-yard QB option keeper from Brown with 8:33 to go in the final period. Uniontown would add one more score two minutes later when David Settles recorded a 22-yard touchdown run to bring the score to its 33-13 final.
When the dust settled, Southern celebrated its Homecoming by improving to 4-4, marking the most wins in a Ram football season since its 8-3 campaign in 2018.
“I told the kids to enjoy this,” McLaughlin said. “They’re 4-4. For some teams, that might be a disappointing record, but for us right now, this is a great record. We still have a ways to go to continue to rebuild this program, but these kids have done such an incredible job to take us in the right direction. I’m so proud of all of them.”
The Rams (4-4) will now close their regular season on the road against the Northern Huskies (3-5) at 6:30 p.m. next Friday.