But Friday was a start.
The 11th-seeded Rams got the early lead and kept it to hold on for a 40-33 victory over No. 6 Chaminade Julienne in a Division III, Region 12 game at Roger Glass Stadium.
The last meaningful playoff run for the Rams came when they reached the 2019 state final and won in overtime.
“It’s been a minute,” Graham said. “We got a little down in a little rebuild mode. Now we’re trying to get some experience and see what it tastes like. They know now that they got to keep working hard and keep preparing because each round changes.”
The Rams (7-4) travel to third-seeded Tippecanoe (10-1), a 42-0 winner over Hillsboro, next Friday for a regional quarterfinal.
The Rams are still young with lots of sophomores on the field. Graham jokes that most of his players don’t drive.
“Mom and dad’s still picking them up,” he said as he sat in the locker room and shouted reminders to players to pick up trash and not leave things behind.
Another week to play means Graham gets to continue to work with his staff to mold the team for now and the future.
“Those are the kinds of games that we can go back and teach, and the greatest part of coaching high school football is teaching,” Graham said. “You can now teach them the understanding of the game and that we have to be physically tough.”
Linebacker Keymaurie Henderson knows what practice will be like, and it started Saturday morning with 110-yard sprints from goal post to goal line.
“Every Saturday we wake up at 9 a.m. and do 16 110s,” he said. “We’re going to do that tomorrow. It’s just adversity. Every time we practice it’s adversity. When we get tired doing 110s it’s adversity, adversity, adversity.”
CJ started out tough when running back Josiah Payne broke a 44-yard run to the Trotwood 20 on the second play of the game to put the Rams in their first adverse situation. But the Eagles fumbled two plays later, and Trotwood drove to an 8-0 lead on quarterback Timothy Carpenter’s 15-yard run. The Rams never trailed, leading 20-12 at halftime and by two scores twice in the second half.
Carpenter completed 14 of 19 passes for 201 yards and touchdown passes of 23 yards to Quinten Johnson and 68 yards to Michael Smith. Carpenter also rushed for 113 yards and two touchdowns, including a 58-yarder with 6:25 left in the game for a 34-18 lead.
“I missed a lot of throws, overshot some touchdowns,” Carpenter said. “But it’s all good. I’ll make it back next week.”
CJ (6-5) rushed for 465 yards, led by Payne with 189 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries. The Eagles scored twice late and had Trotwood in a fourth-and-4 with 2:35 left. But Carpenter ran a draw play for a first down and the Rams scored soon afterward for a 40-26 lead.
“They’ve got a couple of really good athletes and they made three really huge plays,” CJ coach Earl White said. “We’ve just got to get better. We’re a very young defense.”
Trotwood’s defense was on its heels in the first half, but rebounded for most of the second half to allow the offense to build the lead.
“Second half we didn’t really make any adjustments,” Henderson said. “Coach just gave us a very good speech at halftime. So we just took that and played better in the second half.”
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