What happened? Turnovers (3 INT's 2 fumbles for St. Mary's to 1 fumble by CC) and way too many penalties by St. Mary's. St. Mary's backup QB, Marcus Aponte, continued struggling passing the ball, which limited the St. Mary's weapons getting the ball. So many holding calls negated so many Rams 1st downs. With the Rams QB struggling, being new in this position (since grade school), the CC defense was successful in focusing and stopping the run. As a result, the Rams offense was at it's worst I have ever seen in a very long time. CC is good, and agree that they are not as good as some prior year CC teams. But, they are well-coached and their gameplan worked perfect vs St. Mary's as they took the risks to match up one on one with St. Mary's WR's knowing Aponte would struggle. Aponte never completed a pass in the first half. That's how bad he was struggling, and sometimes the WR's were wide open but the passes fell short or were overthrown. It was a nightmare for the Rams offense. Considering the turnovers and such, CC should have won by a much bigger score. But, credit the Rams defense who did their best to hold CC within a score and late 2 scores, as the D-line wore down, having to play much time (since the Rams offense did not have much time of possession of the ball).
The St. Mary's Rams and their QB, Marcus Aponte, have made much improvements. If you watch film of the CC game and film of the game vs Mater Dei, where Aponte played 10 times better, despite having a couple of INT's, you will understand where I am coming from.
On 9/8 vs CC, Aponte was 5 of 20 (all 5 completions in the 2nd half) for 105 yards, 1 TD, 3 INT's.
On 9/23 vs MD, Aponte was 19 of 30 for 263 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT's. <-- BIG DIFFERENCE, considering MD is the #1 team in country. Interestinly, St. Mary's turned the ball over on its very 1st possession in both of these games due to QB fumble deep in their own territory.
In St. Mary's most recent game, vs Tokay, despite the lack of competition in a 62-0 blowout, Aponte was 5 of 5 for 95 yards and 2 TD's (no INT's). I'd say the nerves have settled and the confidence is there with Aponte throwing the ball. He went from not being able to hit wide open WR's to now being able to connect. Also, he has a couple of more weapons at WR that became eligible over the last couple of weeks. Aponte still has a few more league games to continue building his throwing confidence.
Trust me! St. Mary's is much, much better than how they played vs CC on 9/8. They will be playoff ready and ready to DEFEND their SJS D1 section title. But, it will be one game at a time.