Rama, Longo heat up after slow start to lead Springfield

SPRINGFIELD — It took a little while for Springfield’s offense to get going Thursday night, especially the connection between quarterback Jake Rama and wide receiver Robby Longo. Despite a summer of working together, their timing was a bit off.

“We just weren’t on the same page,” Rama said.

In their defense, the Cougars only had one practice because of the short week and Hurricane Ida, which wiped out practice on Wednesday.

Once Rama and Longo got in sync, the Cougars rolled to a 42-6 victory over Harriton in the Central League opener for both teams.

“I think we have some stuff to work on. It was a slow start in the beginning, but they showed some resilience by sticking to it,” Springfield coach Chris Britton said. “We have a lot of young guys and I think there’s a lot of room for improvement, but we have some stuff to clean up.”

Longo agreed.

“We have to come out strong,” Longo said. “We can’t play like that against the better teams in our league. It was a rough start but we finished strong.”

Rama and Longo hooked up six times on five passes and one running play for a total of 188 yards and two scores. Rama finished 10-for-13 for 231 yards and four TDs, all in the first half. Longo was on the receiving end for five of those completions for 131 yards and two scores. He had a running play that went for 47 yards and almost resulted in another TD. Longo took a lateral from Rama and raced up the visitors sideline only to be stopped less than a yard from the end zone.

“I’m still so mad at that,” Longo said . “One of our coaches wasn’t here and he texted one of our other coaches. I know I’m going to get busted for that. That was terrible, but it’s OK. We got the W.”

Springfield came out on top because the two Rama-to-Longo touchdown connections were things of beauty. Longo rose up to haul in a 27-yard pass from Rama to get the Cougars on the scoreboard on their second possession of the game.

The second TD was even better. The duo hooked up on a stop-and-go route that covered 74 yards and gave the Cougars a 14-0 lead.

“That route is great,” Longo said. “That double move is fun. It was a good play call on coach’s part. I wanted it and he got it to me.”

After the score, Rama went up to offensive coordinator Sam Mormando and said, “Good play call, coach.”

“We just put in this week and worked really well in practice,” Rama said. “I just looked and I knew right away it was going to be wide open. I wanted to give coach his props. He put his trust in me and Robby to make that play.”

Springfield scored on its next play when Rama found Aidan Kreydt for a 57-yard score. He closed out the half with a 15-yard scoring strike to Zack Tropiano with six seconds left in the second quarter.

“There were two or three minutes left in the first half and I thought we were just going to run the ball, run the clock out,” Rama said. “That was good momentum going into the second half.”

While Rama and Longo set the tone on offense, senior lineman Brian Layton did the same on the defensive side. Layton spent so much time in the Harriton backfield that you would have thought he knew what plays were coming. In a way, he did.

“All week we were expecting screens and quarterback draws and tonight, when I saw (Harriton quarterback Logan Rothbert) dropping back to pass, I knew I had to eat. I got in the backfield a lot tonight, got where I was supposed to be.”

Layton finished with 2.5 sacks and a number of hurries. Rothberg finished 7-for-17 for 57 yards and was tackled for loss six times. Harriton’s final three possession of the first half were three-and-outs.

“We had to get stops, get off the field as quick as you can,” Layton said. “You don’t want to extend the game so I knew I had to get in there.”