After outlasting a four-hour marathon drive (thanks I-95!) back from Carlisle, Pennsylvania Friday night, there was plenty of time to reflect on the season opener for Randolph-Macon College football.
If you've never had the honor of caring for a newborn baby, here's a quick description of said assignment. For eighteen to twenty hours a day, they sleep. You always have one eye on them, but for the most part, they're quiet and content.
But those four to six hours of activity? Well, it comes in fits and spurts, and can catch you way off-guard. They awaken to cry, signaling it is time for food. And there's no opportunity to say to the baby, well, wait twenty minutes and the bottle will be ready. No, you need it ready. Now.
Then, while changing a diaper, they might "gift" you the joy of, let's say, a sprinkling just as you're about to close the replacement garment.
Minutes of frantic activity followed by hours of relative inactivity.
That last sentence explains the wild pendulum swings of opening night as the Yellow Jackets, while defeating Dickinson 47-21, took almost a half to find some offensive footing, and overcame a key defensive lapse just before halftime to grab total control in the third period.
"We're just gonna have to find ourselves a little bit," head coach Pedro Arruza told RVA Sports Network exclusively after the win, explaining how Team 137 will carve a "different identity" as the season unfolds. "I thought there were some really good things that happened in the game."
New quarterback Dante Casciola, a transfer from the University of Dayton who was recruited by Arruza during his high school playing days in Charlotte, North Carolina, produced a proficient performance, with a 12-of-17 passing effort for 162 yards, adding the Yellow Jackets' opening score on a five-yard run with 1:10 left in the second quarter.
It was scoreless for the first 26:44 of the contest, but the Red Devils ended that with a thirteen-play, 8:38 drive capped by former Randolph-Macon quarterback Presley Egbers' nine-yard strike to Frederik Fjeldseth for a 7-0 lead with 3:16 until intermission.
The Yellow Jackets, held to 29 total yards to this point, finally uncorked the offensive power thanks to one play, with Casciola throwing a dart downfield to Jason Moore, the breakout player of the game, for 48 yards to the Dickinson 27. Casciola scored five plays later.
Egbers responded quickly, as Rocco DiRico ran past defensive back Coleton Payne to haul in a 58-yard touchdown reception in the final minute for a 14-7 Red Devils lead. But Payne would get revenge soon.
"That's one thing we talked about all week: don't let them get behind us. In that situation, you can't," Arruza noted.
After faking the jet sweep twice earlier, the Yellow Jackets gave the ball to Moore, who let two defenders behind, then angled his run perfectly to elude two more Red Devils for a 50-yard score to knot the score at fourteen.
In the span of less than five minutes of game action, the teams combined for 28 points. Then, the wheels came off for Dickinson.
On their first play of the half, and Egbers pitch attempt to Diante Ball went awry, and Tony Skinner, who blew past his defender at the line of scrimmage and grabbed the loose ball from the turf. Three running plays fell short of the goal line, and Kyle Ihle nailed a 22-yard field goal to take the lead for the first time, and for good, at 17-14.
After a five-yard Ball gain was negated via penalty, Egbers threw a pass directly at Payne, who seized the moment, returning the interception 31 yards for the touchdown for a 23-14 advantage.
"He came back, had the pick six in the second half, so that was huge," Arruza explained. "He responded the right way."
That response galvanized the Yellow Jackets, who proceeded to score 33 unanswered points to run away from the Red Devils. Another Ihle field goal came after Owen Arruza's acrobatic interception of a batted Egbers pass to the Dickinson 9. Cameron Chatmon scored on a one-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter, and finished the scoring with another yard TD run with 3:12 to play.
Kwesi Clarke, who led the team in rushing with 82 yards, added a fourth quarter touchdown as well. The Yellow Jackets ran for 209 yards, averaging five yards per carry. Most of that production came in the blowout second half. Dickinson was held to 61 yards on the ground, including just 21 yards for Ball, a first team All-Centennial Conference honoree in 2023.
Moore had 144 yards of total offense, while Neftali Reyes led the defensive charge with ten tackles (seven solo), with Skinner adding seven and Brandon Evans five.
Arruza was adamant to explain his feelings about the final score, and for good reason, as fans who did not witness the game may assume it was an outcome much different than what unfolded on the field.
"You can't read into (the final score), but, but, I will tell you this. Our football team scored 47 points," Arruza opined. "Our football 'team'. No matter how you do it, you score 47 points. That was a team thing, and we left some stuff out there, but we scored 47 points."
Step two for Team 137 comes Saturday in the home opener against Hobart, from Geneva, New York, who rallied from a 7-0 deficit in the fourth quarter to down Alfred 10-7 Friday night. Tailback E.J. Taylor garnered 159 rushing yards in the victory, while the defense allowed just 224 total yards.
The Statesmen and Yellow Jackets will kick off at a special time of 12pm at Day Field. It's another needed, quality non-conference test dotting the landscape of their September calendar.
"We're going to get better. Typical first game, but we're playing better people," Arruza said, a nod to a step up in non-conference scheduling for this season. "Things are going to get exposed. Do I think we played better in the opener last year? I don't know. We played a better team today."
(File Photo of Cameron Chatmon, who scored two touchdowns in the Dickinson victory, by Rachel Witham)
