At Jamesville-DeWitt High School, they have a new artificial turf field. And they also have a football team who christened the field in style.

Making big plays on both sides of the ball, the Red Rams defeated the Carthage Comets 33-14 Friday night, improving to 3-1 on the season on an occasion everyone at J-D would remember with pride.

Several events were bunched into Friday, from an afternoon pep rally to Homecoming festivities that included a dance at the high school following the game.

And just before they kicked off, J-D’s athletes in all sports gathered on the field to participate in the official ribbon-cutting for the turf field, which was approved by district voters in October 2014.

The project, which included a new field, six-lane running track and new lights, had cost $2.6 million, more than $800,000 of which was covered by donations from an earlier community project that attempted to privately fund it. State aid covered the rest.

When the pre-game festivities were done, J-D’s football team got started, confronting a Carthage side that had ended reigning state Class A champion Indian River’s 15-game win streak the week before in a 14-13 decision, though that came with several key Warrior players sitting out a suspension.

Mike Schwedes got the first-ever Red Rams points on the new field on a 63-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. Then the J-D defense struck, Daetwan Reed returning a Comets fumble 43 yards for six points.

That play fired up the rest of J-D’s defenders, who proceeded to shut out Carthage in the second and third periods, ample time for the Rams to build a winning cushion.

Eli Williams scored from two yards out, helping the Rams take a 20-7 lead to halftime. Then Jhakeer Jamison, who led his side with 11 carries for 126 yards, broke free on a 43-yard scoring run in the third quarter before Rahmell Smith’s 52-yard TD sprint in the fourth quarter sealed it.

The week before, J-D had lost to East Syracuse Minoa, who went on to face Fowler Friday night at Corcoran High School’s field and, getting another star turn from senior Jeremy Perry, outlasted the Falcons in a 52-30 victory.

Perry rumbled to six touchdowns, giving him 16 for the season. Three of those scores came in the first quarter on runs of 16, 13 and 71 yards, big plays that, under normal circumstances, would give the Spartans a comfortable lead.

That didn’t happen here, though, as Fowler struck for its own big plays, from Chris Melchoir’s 63-yard TD pass to Raysan Evans to Melchoir returning a Jake Rodman interception 60 yards for six points.

So the second quarter started in a 20-20 tie, but ESM didn’t panic. Instead, it took a 22-20 lead on a safety due to a bad Fowler snap, and then put together two more scoring drives (one set up by another Falcons fumble) that Perry finished with TD runs of one and 15 yards.

Still, the Spartans only led 38-28 at halftime, so its defense took over, not allowing any more points the rest of the way, Fowler only converting on a safety of its own.

Darian Crossman’s interception midway through the third quarter led to Perry finding the end zone a sixth time on a four-yard run. ESM sealed it when Greg Buck scored on a six-yard run with 7:27 left.

ESM would seek its fourth straight win next Thursday when it hosts Oswego, one night before J-D has its own meeting with Fowler on the new turf where it owns a 1-0 mark.