Ramsey and Mountain Lakes have become heated rivals on the lacrosse field in recent years with seemingly annual matchups in the latter stages of the Group 1 state playoffs, but a confrontation on the gridiron had never materialized until Friday night at John C. Depuyt Field in Ramsey.
The Rams hosted the Herd looking to bounce back from a hard-fought loss against division rival Westwood in its outing, as well as become the first team to knock off Mountain Lakes in the early stages of the 2026 campaign.
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Ramsey’s high-powered aerial attack went back-and-forth with Mountain Lakes’ Wing-T focused ground game throughout the night, with the Rams holding a seven-point lead in the latter stages of the fourth quarter.
Senior Brodie Ramiza’s three-touchdown effort accounted for the majority of the Rams’ scoring before sophomore Kelvin Ascencio drilled his first career field goal from 35 yards out with 2:40 remaining to put the finishing touches on a 24-14 win for Ramsey (3-1).
The game had the early makings of an offensive shootout as both Ramsey and Mountain Lakes generated explosive plays en route to the end zone on their respective opening drives.
A 25-yard pass from Ramiza to Brady Veenstra sparked the Rams’ 11-play, 62-yard touchdown drive to begin the game, and Mountain Lakes answered back on a 52-yard touchdown sprint from Jayden Hernando to quickly knot things up at 7-7.
The early Ramiza-Veenstra connection came on a tunnel screen concept Ramsey utilized to great effect throughout the night. After its initial call on the second play of the game, the Rams dialed the play call up once again and came up with a touchdown as Veenstra broke through for a 59-yard catch and run at the 4:52 mark of the second quarter to give his team a lead it carried into the halftime break.
Ramsey went back to the well once more on its opening drive of the third quarter. Following Mountain Lakes’ nine-play, 50-yard touchdown drive to tie the game at 14-14, the Rams faced a 3rd and 7 at the Mountain Lakes nine-yard line. Another tunnel screen call generated another six points as Ramiza found Veenstra once again to score what stood up as the game-winning touchdown.
“It’s one of the key plays in our playbook but we actually struggled with it all week in practice,” Ramiza said.
“We hit it early in the game and we look over to the sidelines like ‘call it again, call it again’ and I trust Brady with the ball, its about getting the ball to our guys and letting them make plays.”
“After that first one connected we knew it was going to be a big play for the rest of the game,” Veenstra added. “They caught on a bit at the end but we knew we had to make the plays throughout the game.”
Veenstra has emerged as Ramiza’s go-to receiver as he added to his team-leading receiving totals with nine receptions and 159 yards to go along with the two scores.
The 2026 Ramsey squad is one with plenty of new faces in starring roles compared the 2025 sectional finalist group. Veenstra caught nine passes for 122 yards through the entirety of last season while Ramiza sat behind the now-graduated Justus Favata and did not throw a varsity pass, but the pair have helped their team not skip a beat in spite of the roster turnover.
“Justus was a great leader, he showed everybody what to do and I sat behind him for three years but I always right there with him,” Ramiza said.
“I was in those film sessions with him and it’s not like we’re an inexperienced group. We’ve always had kids in the mix getting plays in practice so it’s not a new group of kids. We’ve seen all the same things in junior football and now we just come up and do it here.”
A fumble recovery by JT Aliano gave Ramsey an instant red zone opportunity with 7:06 to play in regulation, and Jonathan Davis appeared to score a critical insurance touchdown that was negated by a holding call. A pair of runs for no gain and Mountain Lakes successfully sniffing out the tunnel screen call on third down set up a 4th and goal at the 18-yard line and set the stage for Ascencio to make his mark.
“Kelvin had been sending me videos of him kicking all summer so I knew he was chomping at the bit to get one,” Ramsey head coach Adam Baeira said.
“I said to myself ‘this his moment, let’s see what he’s got’ and he said he can make it so he went out there, lined up, kicked it through and it was a special moment for him.”
After only being asked to convert six point after attempts as a freshman, Ascencio has converted 12 out of 14 extra points as a sophomore and now has his first career field goal on his resume. Everything added up to improve Ramsey’s record to 3-1 as it reached the halfway point of its schedule following Friday’s win, and Baeira’s gratitude for this iteration of Ramsey football shone through following the game.
“There’s not a ton of them but these kids show up every day,” Baeira said.
“They want to be coached, they want to get better, they’re just a fun group to be around and they want to win. I consider myself extremely fortunate to be around this group.”
Mountain Lakes drops to 3-1 and will look to bounce back when it returns to action on Friday, Sep. 25 for a home matchup with Caldwell.
Even in the aftermath of its first defeat of the season, Mountain Lakes remains in strong position as one of North Jersey’s toughest Group 1 contenders. Friday’s matchup against Ramsey marked the first of a five-game stretch featuring four Group 2 opponents as well back-to-back Group 1 state finalist Cedar Grove, and the Herd’s issues against the Rams are ones head coach Darrell Fusco believes can and will be remedied.
“I’ve got to do a better job getting our guys in positions to succeed offensively,” Fusco said.
“The kids all played hard, if (Ramsey) doesn’t kick that field goal we probably have a different drive but their kids made the plays, (Veenstra) was a heck of a runner.....those plays are really tough to defend but we were able to stop it at the end. We’ll get better, I’ll do a better job, it was a good game and they just made a few more plays than us.”
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