He also knows now that his own team from Traip Academy is not far off.

The Rangers, idle as high school football teams across the state kicked off their seasons last week, debuted with a 19-7 defeat at Memorial Field. Winthrop/Monmouth (2-0) took control of a touch-and-go game in the second half, wearing down the Rangers with a heavy dose of running backs Nate Scott and Alec Brown.

“They’re a good team, really underrated I think,” Scott said of Traip. “I mean, they don’t have the most guys, but they’ve got 11 athletes on the field every play. They came out here and battled.”

They had to wait an extra week after Boothbay announced late in the summer that it would not play a varsity football schedule, citing a lack of varsity-level players. Traip’s first drive of the season was worth the wait: an eight-play march that ended with quarterback Angelo Succi hitting Dalan Hubbard on a slant on fourth-and-goal from the 4.

“That’s what we were shooting for,” Succi said. “We get the ball, try to punch one in their mouth real quick.”

The Ramblers responded on their own opening series, covering 60 yards in 13 plays, but the message was clear from the onset: this was going to be a four-quarter football game.

“You saw today it’s anybody’s division,” Ross said. “We can play with anybody. I’m proud of my guys for how they played in the first half. No mistakes, which is what you have to do against a team of that caliber.”

The Ramblers found another gear after the teams emerged from halftime locked in a 13-7 grind. Brown (17-102, two TDs) and Scott (16-103) each polished off 100-yard days on the ground and Winthrop/Monmouth routinely moved the football, even if it wasn’t always scoring points.

The dagger drive started with 6:29 remaining in the third quarter. Scott opened the series with a 22-yard run, and Brown later covered the final 16 on back-to-back fullback dives; the latter came from the 4 and gave the Ramblers their two-score lead.

Traip went three-and-out on its first two drives of the second half, finding no room to run on a night it netted just 17 yards on the ground. Its best series came after Succi delivered a jarring hit on Brown that caused a fumble, which was pounced on by Hubbard for the game’s first turnover.

Succi hit Max Perrault for a 19-yard catch and run that moved the ball into Ramblers territory. But back-to-back runs went nowhere, a holding penalty forced third-and-long, and Traip eventually wound up punting the ball away with 5:46 remaining in regulation.

The Ramblers ran out the clock from there. They kept it on the ground as rain began to fall on Memorial Field, after a deep ball down the sideline on first down sailed incomplete.

“We didn’t run the ball real well last week against Lisbon — we did everything else real well,” Winthrop/Monmouth coach Dave St. Hilaire said. “We struggled to run the ball outside. We worked on that this week and we had some nice ones.”

Perrault’s 36-yard reception along the sideline helped set up Traip’s first score.

Ramblers QB Matt Ingram hit passes of 16, 19 and 11 yards on his team’s drive that tied it 7-7 with 1:22 left in the first quarter. Brown finished that one with a 1-yard plunge.

They got another 1-yard scoring run by Abram Sirois late in the second quarter. The score remained at 13-7 after the extra-point attempt was blocked, and the Ramblers came up empty on their next series after recovering a surprise onside kick.

Succi’s passing was a plus in defeat for the Rangers. The senior finished 4 of 5 for 67 yards and a touchdown. The offense never turned the ball over, it just struggled at times to gain first downs.

“We gave them everything we’ve got,” Succi said of the effort. “We waited four weeks. It’s a whole team effort that we had.”

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