Football: Ramsey gets coach’s message and overtakes rival Mahwah in second half

Ramsey head football coach Adam Baeira sent a strong message to his team at halftime Friday night.

After a slow first half against arch-rival Mahwah, Baeira underlined his team’s desire to win.

Whatever chord Baeira was trying to strike, duo Justus Favata and Jonathan Davis certainly took it to heart.

Moving the ball relentlessly in the second half for more than 200 yards of offense, Favata and Davis helped Ramsey score 19 unanswered points in the second half and come away with a 26-13 victory over rival Mahwah in Mahwah on Friday night.

On the first play of the second half, Davis launched a 48-yard run to the Mahwah 7-yard line to set the early tone. Three plays later, he scored and cut Ramsey’s deficit to 14-13 after a missed extra point.

But at that point, all the momentum was in the Rams’ favor.

“I criticized them a little bit. I told them Mahwah had more desire than us in the first half, that’s a credit to them,” Baeira said. “Our guys took it upon themselves to respond and they did. We have to learn to play 48 minutes of football like we did in the second half.”

A disastrous three-and-out for Mahwah put them back at their own 5 after an intentional grounding penalty, and that gave Ramsey a short field at the Tbirds’ 35. Seven plays later, Davis dove in from the one-yard line to give Ramsey its first lead at 19-14.

The real blow came in the fourth, with Ramsey facing a fourth-and-16 from the Mahwah 30. Favata scrambled to his left and hit Joey Korcak in the corner of the end zone for a score, extending the lead to an insurmountable 25-13.

“We picked up the pace in the second half and once we got the lead, we knew we weren’t going to lose to Mahwah,” Favata said. “David Larsen (one of Ramsey’s linebackers and team captain) gave us the go-ahead at halftime. We came out a different team.”

Favata’s stats were nothing short of incredible, as the junior completed 19 of 23 passes for 208 yards and a touchdown. Davis, for his part, finished with 105 yards on 15 carries to go along with his two touchdowns.

After a scoreless first quarter, which included a Ramsey offense that stalled in the Thunderbirds’ red zone, Mahwah opened the scoring late in the first half. They drove 60 yards in eight plays to score their first point.

A 19-yard sprint from Preston Duffy moved the ball near the red zone, and shortly after, Tbirds running back Elijah Dickson took a swing pass from Jack Newman and cashed in from seven yards out.

Newman’s extra point made it 7-0 with 4:23 left in the half.

On the ensuing drive, Ramsey quickly moved the ball down the field and finally got a score when Favata hit Davis from the backfield for a nine-yard score.

Favata made a brilliant individual play on the final down – running about 70 yards past Mahwah defenders for the hardest-earned 19 yards he’s ever run on a third down to the Mahwah 28.

After getting the ball back with 1:37 left in the first half, Mahwah was assessed a double personal foul penalty on Ramsey that quickly put them at the Ramsey 42. Three plays later, Duffy lost a tackle in the backfield and exploded around right end for a 34-yard touchdown run that gave Mahwah a 14-7 halftime lead.

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