Turnovers in 41-3 loss provide lessons for Bulldog gridders
Ramona High School’s varsity football team turned the ball over four times during the Bulldogs’ season opener at home against St. Augustine, resulting in 28 subsequent points for the Saints and contributing to a 41-0 halftime score and an eventual 41-3 loss for the Bulldogs.
“We had three drives which should have been touchdowns,” said head coach Damon Baldwin. “Two of the drives where we turned the ball over we were getting ready to score.”
A dropped ball deprived Ramona of the third potential touchdown at the Aug. 28 game.
“A lot of the mistakes are correctable,” Baldwin said. “They’re correctable as long as the kids are capable of learning from it.”
Although Baldwin didn’t expect the Bulldogs’ mistakes, he understands the situation. “You’re not surprised when you’re a young team and you’re playing that type of opponent,” he said. “We knew it was uphill because of the strength of their team and the youth of ours.”
St. Augustine closed the 2014 season by winning the CIF Division I championship. The Saints returned 19 starters from that team while Ramona returned four.
“That’s a challenge,” Baldwin said. “We played with a bunch of guys who played their first varsity game and they played against the best the county has to offer.”
Last year Ramona’s loss to Helix in the CIF Open Division playoffs gave the Bulldogs a final record of 8-3. St. Augustine was 8-5. The Saints were 5-5 during the regular season before winning all three Division I playoff contests to earn the CIF championship. “They were young last year,” said Baldwin. “That’s why they’ve got 19 guys returning.”
The CIF final was a 49-42 Saints victory over Madison, which snapped the Warhawks’ nine-game winning streak following Madison’s 0-3 start that began with a 35-7 loss to eventual CIF Division II champion El Capitan.
Madison head coach Rick Jackson called Baldwin the day after Ramona’s loss to St. Augustine to remind Baldwin that Madison opened its season in a similar way last year.
“Those kind of things happen,” said Baldwin. “You’ve got to learn from it.”
The loss gives Ramona a record of 0-1 for the season, but the game gave the Bulldog players experience against top-level opposition.
“You want to be tested early,” Baldwin said. “We can get our young guys better fast.”
The only Ramona injury was an ankle sprain that may keep tailback and linebacker E.J. Schmidt out of tomorrow’s home match against Point Loma.
Ramona opened its season last year with a 55-13 win at El Cajon Valley, which was in Division IV for playoff purposes. “We are a lot better today playing Saints than if we played a fairly weak team,” Baldwin said Saturday. “We’ll be a lot better next week.”
Ramona’s 2014 win against Point Loma was by a 7-6 score. The Pointers’ other two losses last year were both to Madison: once in the battle for the Western League championship and once in the Division I quarterfinal. Tomorrow’s game against Point Loma will also be Pop Warner Night.
“They really want to get back on the field and show that they can learn from the mistakes that they made,” Baldwin said.