“My dad is a Spanish teacher here at Oak Hill,” Stratton said. “If we’d lost, he’d be hearing it from his students.”

Perhaps Charles Stratton’s word of the day when class resumes Tuesday should be “silencio,” because that’s how his son and the Ramblers left the big home crowd with his 82-yard touchdown catch late in the fourth quarter that ultimately gave Winthrop a big 27-24 win on a summer-like afternoon.

Stratton’s second touchdown catch of the day came one play after Zach Glazier forced Oak Hill’s fourth fumble with 5:40 remaining.

Leading 24-20, the Raiders were threatening to take a two-score lead when Glazier timed a blitz up the middle perfectly, burst through the line of scrimmage untouched and got into the backfield to break up a handoff to Cody Depuy. Chris Bowers recovered the ball at Winthrop’s 18, his second fumble recovery.

It was the third time Glazier blitzed into the Raider backfield before QB Parker Asselin could hand the ball off or pitch it.

“I was trying to jump the count and it didn’t work, so I switched to the other hole and got through there,” said Glazier, who was playing with a shoulder injury for much of the second half. “That play was working today.”

“We’ve been running that stunt for the last couple of weeks and it’s been successful for us,” Winthrop coach Joel Stoneton said. “We were trying to fill all of the gaps with the guys up front and just told him to pick somewhere in the middle (to blitz) because they were bigger but we thought we could use our speed. I think that was probably the biggest play of the game for us.”

If it wasn’t, the next one was. Sophomore QB Jared Hanson found Stratton in one-on-one coverage about 20 yards downfield near the Rambler sideline. With the ball in the air, Stratton’s defender slipped, but he still had a shot of at least slowing the receiver down until Stratton juked him and sprinted the final 60 yards down the sideline.

“That was a hitch-and-go,” Stratton said. “I knew if I did the hitch part of it early, the kid would bite because he was nervous about me all day. So I just did it a bit earlier, looked up for the ball, caught it, made a cutback and I was gone.”

Stratton and Glazier’s big plays spoiled a big day by Depuy, who amassed 330 all-purpose yards, including 32 carries for 185 yards and two TDs and four catches for 56 yards.

The Ramblers were shorthanded again this week, missing 13 players due mostly to ineligibility. But a strong start helped them survive the second half, when the inevitable fatigue became an issue. The Raiders limited them to just one first down in the second half, but that was on the game-winning pass.

Glazier (13 carries, 113 yards, two TDs) scored on a 67-yard run on Winthrop’s opening possession. Depuy responded almost immediately with a 49-yard scoring jaunt. Hanson (6 for 14, 156 yards, two TD, one INT) and Stratton hooked up on a 39-yard touchdown pass to make it 12-6 on Winthrop’s next series.

“Everything that they ran, we’d seen before,” Oak Hill coach Dave Wing said. “No excuses. They beat us. Now they’re 3-3 and we’re 3-3.”

Late in the second quarter, Glazier blitzed and forced a fumble in the backfield to give the Ramblers the ball at their own 31. After some power running by Danny Moody (14 carries, 88 yards), Glazier broke a couple of tackles along the Raider sideline on a 20-yard scoring run.

“A kid tried to tackle me and I ducked my head, and when I came I thought I was in the end zone. Then I realized there were a bunch of kids running at me, so it was time to head up field,” Glazier said.

Hanson’s two-point pass to Mario Meucci put Winthrop up 20-8, but the Raiders  were able to cut into that margin late in the first half after Depuy recovered a fumble at Winthrop’s 36. Four plays later, Asselin snuck in from the 2 to make it 20-12 with 14 seconds left in the half.

Depuy’s second touchdown run, a six-yarder, made it 20-18 late in the third. The Raiders forced the Ramblers to line up for a punt on their next series and caught a big break when the snap flew over Meucci’s head. The punter scooped up the ball but didn’t have time to get the kick off and was tackled at his own 23 by Donnie Vannah.

Three plays later, Brandon Potvin ran a counter play up the middle untouched for a 15-yard touchdown that gave the Raiders their first, and only, lead with 11:25 remaining.

“This is a huge win for us because it puts us right back in playoff contention,” Stratton said.

Yes, the Ramblers are vivo.

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