Brayden Frassman was describing the play that resulted in Ross’s go-ahead touchdown on Friday against Monroe when Rams coach Kenyon Commins quote-bombed the interview.
“That’s why we don’t improvise on offense,” Commins chimed in on his way into the Ross locker room.
Frassman scored on a 2-yard run with 6:48 left in the third quarter to snap a 7-7 tie and help propel the Rams to a 21-14 win at Ross’s Robertson Field.
The play that capped a 13-play, 65-yard drive on the first possession of the second half originally was supposed to be a simple handoff to Riley Caldwell, Ross’ senior quarterback said. It ended up looking like the old fumblerooski play in which the ballcarrier “fumbles” before picking it up and getting it to the waiting recipient. In this case, the ball was kicked back to Frassman, who scooped it up and went around right end for the score.
“Our fullback said he wanted to go right behind (offensive lineman) Landon Herrmann,” Frassman said. “He went a little wide and the ball came loose. It came back to me and I picked it up and ran it in.”
Commins doesn’t plan on adding the play to the Ross playlist, he said.
“The ball was on the ground way too many times,” Commins said.
The score was one of three in which Frassman was involved for the now 2-0 Rams. He opened with a 20-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter – his only completion in three tries out of Ross’s triple-option offense – and added an insurance touchdown on a 37-yard touchdown run 8:27 left in the game while gaining 138 yards on 19 carries.
“He had a good, gritty performance,” said Commins, whose team finished with 279 yards of total offense.
Junior fullback Elijah Jackson gained 165 yards on 19 carries and sophomore running backs Ryan Miles and E.J. Jyan each scored touchdowns for the Fighting Hornets, who slipped to 1-1. The teams combined for 35 points and 625 yards of total offense one week after piling up 994 yards and 97 points in a pair of season-opening wins.
The Rams also were charged with just one penalty while giving up 346 yards of total offense to Monroe.
“I’ll give coach Meyers credit,” Commins said, referring to assistant Casey Meyers. “He said that was as well-disciplined an effort against a triple-option team as he’s seen in a long time.
“That’s a seven-win team, easy” he added about Monroe. “We knew they were going to get some. It was a matter of how much we could limit it.”
Lightning delayed the opening kickoff for 61 minutes, and Monroe saw in the second half five players helped off the field six times by injury issues – most of which appeared to be leg cramps.
“We started off really well,” Hornets coach Bob Mullins said. “We didn’t execute in the second half. I think the heat go us. Their best players were on the field. Ours were on the sideline. That makes a difference. That’s a good team. They’re going to win their league.”
Miles broke free for a 65-yard touchdown run to give Monroe its only lead with 9:03 left in the second quarter. The score temporarily quieted the raucous Ross rooters, but they quickly came back to life on Frassman’s touchdown pass with 1:02 left before halftime.
After Frassman gave Ross the lead in the third quarter, he tacked on a 37-yard touchdown run with 8:27 left in the game.
“Tonight was pretty crazy, especially with the delay,” he said. “The longer it went on, you could feel the energy going down in the locker room, but when they told us we were going to start, you could feel it going up again.”
Ross is scheduled to play a non-conference game at Valley View on Friday. Monroe is scheduled to play a non-conference game at home against Western Brown.