Rocky River has a winning streak! Ravens stop East Mecklenburg at home, get 2nd win of year

With a brutal schedule coming up for Rocky River, new Ravens head coach Kenneth McClamrock needed his team to get off to a fast start to its Southwestern 4A Conference schedule Friday when it hosted East Mecklenburg in its league opener.

McClamrock’s team enjoyed success by overcoming self-inflicted mistakes with big plays on offense and defense in a 21-12 home victory.

“We just have to improve in the week off,” McClamrock said of his team, which won its second straight game to improve to 2-3. “We’re 1-0 this week and 2-0 in the last two weeks. Obviously, we’ll need to be better.”

After the week off, Rocky River visits Catholic on Oct. 4 and Butler on Oct. 10 before hosting Providence on Oct. 18 and Independence on Oct. 25.

In Friday’s victory, sophomore quarterback Ramir Watson hit Ronnie Little for an 18-yard first-quarter touchdown and Cameron Walkup scored on a 1-yard run as the Ravens took a 15-6 lead into halftime.

Rocky River senior linebacker Julian Platt then returned an interception 22 yards on the second play from scrimmage in the second half for a 21-6 lead. It was one of six turnovers forced by the Ravens’ defense, including two Walkup fumble recoveries.

However, the Ravens dropped a potential touchdown pass and had two other touchdowns negated by penalties. Rocky River was flagged 26 times for 226 yards on the night.

East Mecklenburg (0-4) scored its touchdowns on throws by sophomore quarterback Adam Aoun — one in the second quarter and one with 24.4 seconds left.

Three who made a difference

Ramir Watson, Rocky River: Completed eight of 17 passes for 94 yards and one touchdown and rushed nine times for 8 net yards.

Adam Aoun, East Mecklenburg: Completed 22 of 38 passes for 242 yards and two touchdowns, including eight completions for 103 yards and one touchdown to James Bailey.

Julian Platt, Rocky River: Linebacker returned an interception 22 yards for a touchdown and was leader of a defense that forced six turnovers and limited the Eagles to minus-3 yards rushing in nine carries.

Notable

▪ East Mecklenburg, which opened in 1950, has 10 all-time conference titles, the last coming in 1992. The Eagles also won the 1977 N.C. 4A state title. East Mecklenburg’s last winning season was 8-6 in 2009.

▪ Rocky River, which opened in 2010, has one conference title (2013) in school history and hasn’t made the playoffs since 2014.

▪ The game lasted three hours and two minutes, largely because of 37 total penalties — 24 in the first half and 13 in the second half.

They said it

“We definitely need to continue to clean some things up. If we don’t clean those things up, we’ll have a tough time with the teams we’re racing in the next few weeks.” — Rocky River coach Kenneth McClamrock

GAME SUMMARY

East Mecklenburg 0 6 0 6 - 12

Rocky River 8 7 6 0 - 21

FIRST QUARTER

RR: Ronnie Little 10 pass from Ramir Watson (Darius Ervin Jr. run)

SECOND QUARTER

EM: James Bailey 11 pass from Adam Aoun (Kick failed)

RR: Cameron Walkup 1 run (Tyler Richie kick)

THIRD QUARTER

RR: Julian Platt 22 interception return (Kick failed)

FOURTH QUARTER

EM: Zahir Wilson 4 pass from Aoun (Pass failed)