The last time the Rams traveled to the state of Virginia they lost 31-17 to Virginia Tech. This time around they were looking to win back to back games for the first time this season when they took on William and Mary in Williamsburg, but had no such luck.
The Rams started freshman Quarterback Darius Perrantes instead of their usual starter, junior Vito Priore, who would enter the game later on as the rotating of the quarterbacks continued from the previous week.
“Playing both guys is interesting,” Head Coach Jim Fleming said. “We’re excited about Darius, we think he’s a good player and we think Vito’s a good player. With the redshirt rule when you got a chance to experience what these kids can do, they’ve earned some opportunities to play, so we got some snaps to Darius and he’s done a nice job, threw some nice balls.”
Regardless of who was under center, the Rams were never in this one. They quickly went down 7-0.
After the William and Mary touchdown Rhody was looking to keep pace with a touchdown of their own. This seemed to be the case as the Rams drove down the field into the Tribe’s redzone. On a first down and 10 on the 13 yard line senior Running Back Naim Jones took the handoff and fumbled.
The Tribe recovered on their own eight yard line and then easily made their way 92 yards down the field to extend their lead to 14-0. Turnovers would continue to plague the Rams throughout the afternoon as they had a total of four in the first half.
William and Mary took advantage of these turnovers scoring three of their five first-half touchdowns off of them. The Rams did manage to score once in the first half but it did not make a difference. As halftime approached Rhody found themselves down by 29 points, 35-6.
Rhody scored again in the third quarter but it still did not even put a dent in the problem they were facing. William and Mary also punched it into the endzone again in the third quarter to extend their already huge lead, 42-12.
Another Rhody touchdown did not matter as they still trailed. William and Mary added 13 more points to their lead and defeated the Rams 55-19. Fleming said that the defense for Rhody was almost non-existent.
“Defensively we just couldn’t together enough,” said Fleming. “It really wasn’t too much other than just guys not getting in their gaps so we go to find a way to make that easier or do that a little bit more effectively.”
This was Rhody’s sixth loss in conference play, dropping them to 0-6 on the season in the conference and 2-8 overall.
Even though the Rams lost there were some individual accomplishments. Junior Receiver Isaiah Coulter had his seventh career 100-yard game as he finished the afternoon with eight catches for 153 yards. Coulter also scored all three of Rhode Island’s touchdowns and is also just 47 yards shy of 1,000 receiving yards on the season.
“Isaiah stepped up big for us, had three touchdown passes caught,” Fleming said.
The Ram’s will be on the road again this Saturday, Nov. 16 when they travel to Orono to take on the 5-5 (3-3 CAA Football) Maine Black Bears in a 12 p.m. kickoff at Alfond Stadium.