VERNON — William Davis, Rockville’s starting cornerback, couldn’t see. His contact lens was stuck in his eye and nobody, not even the paramedic on site, could get it out.
So Rockville football coach Erick Knickerbocker called on backup cornerback Demeir Thomas, a senior, to play in the second half of the Pequot Conference game against Granby/Canton.
Thomas made the biggest play of the night, hitting Granby/Canton’s Ben Vrable on the goal line with a few seconds left and knocking the ball loose after a pass from quarterback Vincent Forte on the 12-yard line and Rockville came away with a 27-20 win Friday night.
“I just dropped back into my coverage,” Thomas said. “I saw he was going out. He was calling for the ball. I saw him and I just took him down.”
It was that kind of night for the Rams (3-0), who came up with big plays even though they lost five starters on defense before the season even started due to transfers and injuries. Their best offensive and defensive lineman was in and out of the game with cramping and Granby/Canton (1-1) had all the momentum in the second half.
“It’s ragtag,” Knickerbocker said of his defense. “Jon (Kasamba) was out with cramping forever and it was bad. He got back in the second half, but he was in and out. He and (Amir) Muhammad, our other senior, were in and out.
“Will (Davis) had a touchdown earlier (a 74-yard touchdown reception in the first half). He’s one of our best players. He had the contact stuck in the back of his eye. He missed the whole second half. I hope we got it out. I don’t know if we ever got it out. He couldn’t play because he couldn’t see. That’s something I’d never seen before.”
Sophomore linebacker Jeremiah Pinckney had 12 tackles for Rockville and senior Cam LaValley had 13. Kasamba ended up with seven tackles and two sacks, including one in the last minute of the game that stopped Granby’s momentum.
Davis had four receptions for 101 yards and two touchdowns in the first half. Senior quarterback Brady Ramsdell completed 11 of 22 passes for 246 yards and had three touchdowns.
With a little over two minutes left, Rockville had the ball but couldn’t convert on a fourth-and-2, which left the ball on its 43-yard line.
“We went for it on fourth down,” Ramsdell said. “We thought we had a good play drawn up. We were ready for it. We got stopped. It happens. We say, ‘So what, now what?’
“We got back on defense. Once again, they get a few good plays, they get a first down. They go for the end zone and our corner was out. Our backup corner was in. Demeir. He just made a great play on it.”
Granby scored first on a 31-yard pass from Forte to Ryan Cuniowski in the first quarter, and Rockville went up 7-6 on the touchdown pass from Ramsdell to Davis with 50 seconds left in the first quarter. Granby’s Jayden Young ran back a kickoff return 78 yards to give Granby a 12-7 lead. Ramsdell found Kayden Boland for a 15 yard TD pass, then Boland had an 11-yard touchdown run to put Rockville up 20-12. A 37-yard touchdown pass gave Rockville a 27-12 lead going into halftime.
But Granby came back. Forte had an 8-yard keeper for a touchdown and scored on the conversion and it was 27-20 with two minutes left in the third.
On second and 18 with 52 seconds left, Forte converted a pass to Carter Chambers that brought Granby to the 17. Forte ran the ball five yards to the 12. He had an incomplete pass and then it was the final play.
“This year, it’s all been about second chances,” Kasamba said. “Cam, our starting linebacker – he didn’t even play last year. He’s out there making plays. Demeir didn’t get too much playing time last year.
“But I just knew, game on the line, Demeir would be able to make a play. He’s a hard worker, great guy.”
