DEREK DOES IT

Randallstown receiver Derek Fickling, who had only one reception for five yards during all of last season, scored three TDs in a 28-18 win over Lansdowne. “We just have that connection,” said Rams quarterback, Tashaun Perry.

So Fickling went to work in the offseason to make himself a better player.

“After the season last year, I only had one catch the whole season. It was a catch of about five yards,” said Fickling, a 6-foot-3, 180-pounder who also plays basketball.

“I worked on my routes, and coming back to the ball. Just working on my legs and my hands so that I could make sure that I could catch the ball if it’s thrown to me,” Fickling added. “I just had to concentrate more. I just told myself, ‘this year is going to be my year,’ and that I had to step up and make big plays in order for this team to win. I had to condition my mind in that sense.”

Fickling was on point in Saturday’s 28-18, Baltimore County 2A-1A League victory over visiting Lansdowne (1-1 overall and in league), as the Rams rose to 2-0 in league play.

Fickling caught scoring passes of 21, 22 and 34 yards from Tashaun Perry, who also tossed a 27-yard touchdown to junior Brandon Young and finished at 10-for-16 for 207 yards.

Fickling finished with five receptions for 112 yards, as well as a two-point catch from Perry, who
called the chemistry between himself and the game’s primary receiver, “just right.”

“Derek and I are friends off the field as well as on the field,” said Perry, a 6-1, 180-pound senior. “We just have that connection. It’s like, ‘just run the routs, and that’s perfect.’ And I just throw it to him.”

Lansdowne was within, 14-12, when Fickling and Perry connected on the Rams’ last two scores — passes of 22-, and, 21-yards, respectively, late in the the third quarter and early in the fourth.

“I was just breaking down the defenses, and I read that their safeties were backing up in coverage,” Perry said. “We had Derek run a post-pattern, and it was wide-open all game. As tall as he is, he was just catching it.”

For Lansdowne, senior running back Kwame Jackson covered 100 yards on 17 carries, scoring on a couple of runs from three yards out, and a third, from 36 yards.  Jackson gave the Vikings their early lead, 6-0, on the first of his 3-yard runs, which was set up by Malcolm Baldwin’s interception.

“When I saw Kwame as a 10th grader, I’ll never forget this run he’s at the sideline, stops, and then the whole team goes to the other side and he runs 70-yards for a touchdown,” Lansdowne coach Todd Hawkins said. “Teams will have to prepare for him.”

But the Rams got going behind Perry, who often eluded a number of defenders before completing his passes of 34-, and, 27-yards, respectively, to Fickling and Young to get the Rams ahead for good.

“In the beginning of the game, I threw an interception, and my defense had trouble because they were on the 20-yard line,” said Perry, whose conversion run gave the Rams the lead for good, 8-6, midway through the second quarter.

“We had an injury to one of our star lineman, and there were breakdowns when they blitzed up the middle. So I had to scramble outside of the pocket,” said Perry. “But my coach told me to calm down, and it was all good from there. I have a lot of playmakers,
so I was able to throw to them.”

But the Vikings were far from done, putting together a drive at midfield that ended with Jackson’s 36-yard run to bring them within,  14-12 — the score at halftime.

Jackson scored once more, making it, 28-18, with just under four minutes to play, but the Rams held on for the victory.

In losing, however, the Vikings continued to make progress under fourth-year coach Todd Hawkins, whose squads were 0-10, 1-9, and, 1-9, over the previous three seasons.

 “We had a ceremony in practice the other day where we dug a hole and buried the past,” said Hawkins. “This is not the old Lansdowne football. This is a new generation. We fought. The old Lansdowne would have given up and we didn’t.”

 
Randallstown 28, Lansdowne 18

Lansdowne      6     6     0      6        18

Randallstown   0     14   8      6        28

L- Jackson 3 run (kick failed)
R- Fickling 34 pass from Perry (Perry run)
R- Young 27 pass from Perry (run failed)
L- Jackson 36 run (run failed)
R- Fickling 22 pass from Perry (Fickling pass from Perry)
R- Fickling 21 pass from Perry (kick failed)
L- Jackson 3 run (run failed)