Defense, Elpheage’s kick return boosts Carver to thrilling win over Ehret

NEW ORLEANS – Carver head coach Byron Addison said it best when he described his team’s win against John Ehret.

“Nobody lost tonight. Both teams just ran out of time.”  Carver held on to edge Ehret, 36-30, Thursday night at Pan American Stadium.

Lynarise Elpheage returned a kickoff 81 yards for a touchdown to give the Rams the lead for good.

Ehret drove down to the Carver 3-yard line, before the first set of back to back sacks including one by Khari Coleman to end the drive. Ehret’s next possession also ended in back to back sacks.

“Give Carver a lot of credit,” said Ehret head coach Marcus Scott. “They made a couple of more plays than we did tonight.”

Carver’s defense managed seven sacks on the evening, including back to back plays to force a turnover on downs when Ehret had the ball with goal to go with 2:37 remaining leading 36-30.

Ehret had one more chance with 1:39 to left, in need of a touchdown to force overtime and an extra point to win. Quarterback Theodore Calloway was once again sacked on 3rd and 4th down to give the ball back to Carver with 25.1 to go, allowing the rams to kneel once and escape with the thrilling victory.

“I tip my hat off to John Ehret,” said Addison. “It was an exciting game. Week three man. We’re going to enjoy this win and get ready for our next opponent.”

The Rams defense was led by the Kansas commitment Coleman, who started the game with a bang when he stripped Calloway of the ball and ran it back 33 yards for a touchdown to give Carver (2-1) an early 7-0 advantage.

Coleman was back at it again on the very next possession when he stripped quarterback Kaine Williams of the ball and returned the fumble to the Ehret 10. Ehret (1-2) responded, however, when Seybian Williams intercepted Quincey Curry in the end zone and ran the ball back to the Carver 30.  Running back Damon Leonard only needed one play to run the ball down the right sideline for the score. Ehret missed the extra point making it 7-6 Carver.

Calloway got it together in the second quarter as he found Ja’Ron Glenn and Brandon James for touchdown passes of 13and 15 yards respectively. Both scores came after big efforts by the Ehret special teams in picking up partially blocked punts to give the Patriots the ball on the 13-yard line and the 15-yard line respectively, needing just one play each. Those plays gave the Patriots a 20-7 lead.

A 9 yard run by Curry and a 43-yard field goal by kicker Gary Blake helped Carver make it 20-17 at half.

After Leonard fumbled the ball to start the second half, Carver marched down and Curry ultimately found Deloyd Lewis for a touchdown from the 20-yard line on 4th and goal to take the lead 24-20.

Later in the 3rd, a high snap sailed over quarterback Jaheim Patterson’s head. Patterson recovered in the end zone, but was touched down resulting in a safety and narrowing the Ram lead to 24-22.

In the 4th quarter, running back Randolph Armstead had the most confusing play of the night when he appeared to go down at the line of scrimmage, causing the Ehret defense to take it easy. The whistle was never blown, however, and Armstead ran the ball uncontested 34 yards for a score to stretch the lead to 30-22.

Leonard tore off runs of 51 and 18 yards respectively on the next Ehret possession, helping set up Calloway’s third touchdown pass of the night form 16 yards out to Glenn. Ehret faked a field goal on the extra point with James passing to Glenn in double coverage to convert and tie the game at 30.