Rams end season with loss to Bears

Winston-Salem State’s dream season ended with a Shaw nightmare.

The Bears rallied in the second half to come away with a 31-27 victory on Saturday afternoon in front of around 7,000 at Durham County Stadium. The win sets up a showdown on Saturday with St. Augustine’s with the winner of that game getting a berth into the CIAA Championship Game.

For the 18^th-ranked Rams, their season of such high hopes comes to an end as they finish 8-2 and 5-2 in the CIAA.

All season long Coach Connell Maynor of the Rams hasn’t made excuses, and he wasn’t about to start. The Rams led the whole way until a costly interception by Kameron Smith late in the game gave the Bears (7-2, 6-0) the final jolt of momentum they would need.

“We just didn’t play well and didn’t execute well enough to win the game,” Maynor said. “So I have to take all the responsibility for that because I didn’t have my guys ready to play in the second half and we lost the football game.”

The biggest play was turned in by Stanley Porter, a sophomore defensive lineman for the Bears. With 3:26 left and the Rams clinging to a 27-24 lead Smith tried an inside screen on third down to wide receiver Tehvyn Brantley but Porter, who is 6-4 and 260 pounds, stepped in front at the 26-yard line and made his first interception of his career.

“It was just God,” Porter said. “I just waited and I saw him dropping back and it was a screen pass and he threw it right to me. So I thank God for that one.”

After Porter returned it to the Rams’ 12 the Bears scored three plays later for a 31-27 lead with 1:59 left when quarterback Kevin Atkins scored on a 5-yard run around the left side.

The mistake by Smith was his first of the day, but it was a big one. He rushed for 109 yards on 18 carries and was 7 of 13 passing for 64 yards.

“That was the first time we ran that play all game,” Smith said about the interception. “It looked like it was there and I had seen that it was open but that lineman just jumped right in front. That surprised me. That was a huge play.”

The Rams made another mistake on the ensuring kickoff when Nic Cooper, who rushed for 174 yards on 30 carries and scored two touchdowns and went over the 1,000-yard mark for the season, tried to catch the deep kickoff around the 2 yard line but the ball went out of bounds. The Rams then had to go 98 yards with 1:56 to go but couldn’t move the ball.

“The interception was huge,” Maynor said. “That gave them a short field and it was late in the game and it was a big-time momentum switch for them. It was hard to keep them out of the end zone in that situation.”

To open the second half the Rams had a 15-play drive that used up nearly nine minutes but all they could get out of it was a 26-yard field goal by Landen Thayer to take a 27-17 lead.

In the fourth quarter the Bears scored with 6:05 to play on Atkins’ 11-yard touchdown pass to Tyrone Craig to cut it to 27-24. A little later it was time for Porter to make the play of the game.

Coach Darrell Asberry of the Bears said that for whatever reason Porter predicted he would make a big play.

“What was so crazy was on the sidelines I told the defense to get me the ball back and that kid (Porter) told me ‘I’m going to intercept it for you,’” Asberry said. “We got up the field pretty fast on that and they were trying to hit us on a screen and we were just ready.”

Maynor said that the Rams had plenty of chances to put the game away but just didn’t do it.  Getting just three points on the first drive of the second half turned out to be a factor.

Senior Brian Wynn, a tight end, summed it up about losing their shot at getting to the CIAA title game and losing their chance at a possible playoff berth.

“It’s tough to take,” Wynn said trying to hold back tears. “We worked hard all season and now it’s over….We beat ourselves.”

The Rams dominated the statistics with 355 yards of offense and the Bears had just 207 yards. But Atkins and running backs Raymond Williams (79 yards rushing) and Antonio Dunn (57 yards rushing) did enough in the second half to keep the Bears close.

“We didn’t execute when we needed to,” Smith said about the fourth quarter meltdown on offense.

Some of the Rams had trouble talking about the loss.

“I can’t explain it,” said wide receiver Dominique Fitzgerald. “We thought we had the game in hand and whatnot but I just can’t explain it right now.”

Maynor, who completed his first season as a head coach, said that turning around the program that was 1-10 last season was nice but he and his players wanted more.

“It was a great season for the guys, but we didn’t accomplish what we wanted,” Maynor said. “I told them for the community, for the alumni and the school it was a great season for what’s it been in the past but it’s not what we wanted. We play for playoffs and championships so it’s a big disappointment for us.”

The Rams got off to a great start scoring on their first two possessions. On the third play of the game Smith went around the left side, spun back and went inside for 55 yards for a touchdown.

The Rams then got the ball right back when Atkins fumbled a shotgun snap and Shawn Kearney recovered.

Five players later Smith went back to pass, then did a reverse handoff behind his back to Cooper who went 24 yards for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead after Thayer’s point-after attempt was good.

The Bears cut the lead to 14-7 with 2:51 to go in the first quarter and Williams’ leap from 2 yards out.

In the second quarter Thayer made a 22-yard field goal for a 17-7 lead but the Bears came back to cut the margin to 17-14 when Tyrone Bolden caught a swing pass and went 10 yards with 2:41 left in the half.

On the touchdown, however, Bolden taunted Rashaun Jones of the Rams and was assessed a 15-yard penalty and it forced the Bears to kickoff from deep in their own territory.  The Rams ended up starting from the Bears’ 48 yard line, and Cooper did the rest.

On the first play Cooper took a handoff, went right and then broke three tackles along the way to a touchdown and a 24-14 lead.

Lycon Shepherd of the Bears boomed a 47-yard field goal with 12 seconds left in the half to cut it 24-17. The field goal would have been good from 57 yards.

The final regular-season game for the Bears will be Saturday against St. Aug’s at Raleigh Broughton High School. The winner of the game gets a berth into the CIAA Championship Game on Nov. 13.

“We have to keep it going, this was a big win for us,” Porter said. “We have another shot at the championship so we have to go and beat St. Aug’s next week.”