RAMS REBOUND FROM SKID WITH DOMINATING DEFENSE, MAKE IT TWO IN A ROW IN REVIVING PLAYOFF PUSH

 

Demoralized from a three-game losing streak in the middle of its schedule, the Madison Heights Lamphere football team was on the ropes, looking about to hit the canvas face first. Like a resilient prize fighter, the Rams have stormed back from the brink of extinction and have now won two straight ballgames in resounding fashion. Recording its second consecutive shutout, Lamphere gutted out a 7-0 win over Marysville on Friday night to once again keep its postseason hopes from flat-lining.

Kicking off the season 2-0, the Rams dropped three games in a row, capped by getting punched in the mouth by crosstown-foe Madison Heights Madison three weeks ago and falling to 2-3. Following Friday's victory and a 37-0 mauling of Mount Clemens last week, Lamphere is 4-3 and still holds a puncher's chance to win out and qualify for the playoffs for the third straight year. It had been 30 years since a Lamphere squad came up with back-to-back shutouts wins.

A 2-yard touchdown run in the first quarter by goal-line back Jackson Lewis, the team's captain and starting middle linebacker, proved the difference in the low-scoring affair. On the defensive side of the ball, he picked up a game-high 14 tackles. During the winter, Lewis is an all-state wrestler and is being recruited by colleges for both sports.

Since taking over the Rams program in 2004, head coach Jason Charron, a former starting quarterback at Wayne State, has yet to have a losing season. The way his team is playing for him currently should give him confidence that this year won't be his first. For their next game, Charron and the Rams will face Warren Woods Tower on their home field.