Vian derails Prague's perfect season with a dominating 40-19 win for 2A-5 title

By Patrick Kays 

Photo of Vian QB Diego Ramos (10) courtesy of the Sequoyah County Times

VIAN - In a few months, Diego Ramos will graduate and throw for the Arkansas Razorbacks' baseball team.

He'll be on a field a little dirtier, in the shape of a diamond, and also less wet than the conditions he led the Vian Wolverines in to a dominating district championship win on Friday night.

With only nine completed passes, Ramos tallied 223 passing yards and four touchdowns en route to a 40-19 victory against the previously unbeaten Prague Red Devils in some late night Oklahoma showers.

The quarterback gave all of the love to his receivers.

“I love my receivers. I love throwing to them,” said Ramos. “They do the job for me. They make me look good”

Three of those touchdowns came in the second half following Prague running back Trevor McGinnis’ 17-yard touchdown run to give Prague a 13-12 lead three minutes into the second half.

Three plays later, Ramos found a wide open Jacob Brannick for a 55-yard touchdown to give the lead back to Vian with 7:37 left in the third.

The teams traded blows to finish the third quarter as a 3-yard Aiden Auld quarterback keeper for a Prague TD made it 20-19, Vian, with under two minutes to go in the quarter.

This was followed by a sensational bobbling catch in the end zone by Vian’s DeSean Mays for a 32-yard score with 50 seconds left to make it 26-19 in favor of the Wolverines.

Disaster then struck for Prague as the ensuing kickoff ended in a strip and recovery for the Wolverines.

Vian went on to score two more times before the contest's end, on a Ramos 49-yard touchdown pass to Nathan Creasey and a Mays interception return for a touchdown.

“We couldn’t really run the ball on them much. (Prague) played great run defense,” said Vian coach Gary Willis. “Our receivers and quarterback made some big, big plays for us.”

Mays finished with three catches for 76 yards and two touchdowns, 10 rushes for just 24 yards, and one interception returned for a touchdown.

The Red Devils opened the contest with immediate pressure on Vian when Prague’s Joe Fixico took a kickoff 80 yards to the end zone.

It seemed like Prague would continue to spoil Vian’s Senior Night when the Red Devils stymied Vian’s 10-play, 27-yard drive that ended on an incompletion on fourth down on the Red Devil 35-yard line.

However, on the ensuing play Vian’s Cash Collins would sack Auld, knocking the ball loose and into the hands of Wolverine freshman Masyn Wright, who took it into the end zone to tie the score up at 6-all with 7:56 remaining in the first.

Prague’s first year head coach Rafe Watkins looked at the turnovers for what went wrong with his team on Friday.

“The biggest thing was the turnovers,” said Watkins. “We gave them 21 points.”

However, Watkins saw a lot of good things to take from this loss, including the fact that they held a very fast Vian team to only 42 rushing yards.

That statistic is a polar opposite on Prague's stat line as the Red Devils leaned heavily on their rushing attack, rushing 49 times for 261 yards.

“Championship teams defend the run,” Watkins said. “And we are going to build off that because they couldn’t run on us.

"They did throw the deep ball, which we were afraid of because they have so much speed. But I like what I saw (Friday); this team is going to be special. We are far from done, I can assure you that.”

Auld tallied 141 yards rushing on 17 carries with one touchdown.

McGinnis finished with 23 carries for 119 yards and a touchdown.

Prague (8-1 overall) will finish second in District 2A-5 at 5-1. 8-1;5-1.

Vian claims the 2A-5 title and improves to 7-2 overall and 6-0 in district.

“Number one in the district. That is always what we shoot for,” said Ramos. “Obviously, state is the main goal.”