Finally

Defense leads Titans past Hope for first league win in 28 tries

Posted 10/21/14

Pilgrim fumbled away the opening kickoff in Friday night’s football game, fell behind 10-0 and watched as the same key players who have been banged up all year went down again.

It felt like …

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Finally

Defense leads Titans past Hope for first league win in 28 tries

Posted

Pilgrim fumbled away the opening kickoff in Friday night’s football game, fell behind 10-0 and watched as the same key players who have been banged up all year went down again.

It felt like more of the same, but in the fourth quarter, the Patriots turned it into something much different.

Roger Anyango ran for two touchdowns, the defense flexed its muscle and the Pats scored three touchdowns in the final 12 minutes to stun Narragansett 20-10. It was the second league victory of the year for the Pats, who suddenly find themselves at .500 and sitting in fifth place in the nine-team Division III.

“We keep preaching that we’re a team and at some point, someone’s got to step up,” said Pilgrim head coach Tom O’Connor. “Today, we had a lot of guys step up for us.”

That hasn’t always been the case for the Pats, especially when their déjà vu injuries have struck. Quarterback Rob Quaine and running back Owen Kelly have been in and out of the lineup, and the Pats’ fortunes have gone with them.

On Friday, Kelly left with a leg injury on the first play of the second quarter and didn’t return. Later in the quarter, Quaine was sacked on a third-down play and injured his neck. He was taken off by ambulance as a precaution.

Soon after the ambulance rolled out, the Mariners scored a touchdown to go ahead 10-0. They would carry that lead into the fourth quarter.

But the final frame belonged to the Patriots – from the very first play. Facing a fourth-and-nine at the Narragansett 39-yard line, the Pats came out of the break between quarters with their best play of the night. Backup quarterback Jimmy McKay threw a perfect deep ball to David McMullen on the right sideline, and McMullen out-jumped a Mariner defender to haul it in, giving Pilgrim a first down at the 6-yard line.

Before that play, the Pats had failed on three fourth downs in Narragansett territory, including two in the red zone.

“That long pass set the tone,” O’Connor said. “Our offense was firing after that.”

Sean Cooney picked up 4 yards on first down then rumbled into the end zone from 2 yards out on the next play. Pilgrim’s two-point try was stopped, making it 10-6 with 10:44 to play.

The Pilgrim defense – which had played well all night – played even better with the jolt of momentum. After the Mariners drove into Patriot territory, Pilgrim stopped a pair of runs for short yardage, forced an incompletion on third down and watched the Mariners miss a 41-yard field goal try.

Pilgrim took over at its own 20 with 6:08 left and kept on rolling. Anyango, who replaced Kelly in the backfield, threw a halfback pass on the first play of the next drive and connected with a wide-open McMullen for 35 yards.

“We did that with Kelly against Ponaganset and Roger has been saying he throws a better ball than Kelly,” O’Connor said. “I don’t know about that, but it was successful both times.”

On the next play, Cooney broke loose for a 31-yard run to the Narragansett 14. Anyango then burst through a hole in the middle and rumbled into the end zone to give Pilgrim the lead. Anyango also ran in the two-point conversion, making it 14-10 with 4:32 left.

In a little over six minutes, Pilgrim had turned the game completely around.

“In the first half, we moved the ball well, but we kept hurting ourselves,” O’Connor said. “We cleaned those up, played almost mistake-free in the second half and put some points on the board.”

A personal foul penalty by the Mariners on the touchdown was assessed on the kickoff, which allowed Pilgrim to pin Narragansett deep, at its own 14. Quarterback Brandon Pereira misfired on first down then was stopped for no gain on a second-down scramble. On third down, he found Erik Sterling in the flat, but Cooney stopped him two yards shy of the first down marker.

Facing fourth-and-two with just 3:22 left, the Mariners went for it and were stuffed. Henry Cascella, Griffin Potter and Evan Broccoli converged on Deontae Stanley and stopped him for no gain.

“Defense did a great job,” O’Connor said. “Coach Bob had a great scheme set up and it worked to perfection.”

Pilgrim took over with 3:16 left and, for good measure, tacked on its third score in nine minutes. Anyango ran it in from 12 yards out at the two-minute mark, making it 20-10.

The Mariners had one last possession and got as far as the Pilgrim 15-yard line, but Darren Grant intercepted Pereira with 49 seconds left to seal the victory.

From another rough start, the Pats had delivered their best performance of the season.

“We had some younger kids step up,” O’Connor said. “We’ve been working them hard, so they’re caught up on what they need to do to keep us successful and they did it tonight.”

Narragansett had taken the lead on a first quarter field goal by Christian Humulock, but the Pats felt lucky to be down only 3-0 at that point. Thanks to the fumble on the opening kickoff, the ball was deep in Pilgrim territory for much of the first quarter.

“We had tough field position after we fumbled that opening kickoff,” O’Connor said. “We held and we held. We only let one score in, when it easily could have been a touchdown instead of that field goal.”

Narragansett made it 10-0 with 2:26 left in the first half on a 15-yard touchdown pass from Pereira to Jared Field.

Thanks to Pilgrim’s fourth quarter turnaround, those would be the Mariners’ last points. Their six possessions ended with two punts, two interceptions, a missed field goal and a turnover on downs. Pereira completed nine of 27 passes for 117 yards. Grant intercepted him twice.

“I feel the secondary is one of our stronger points,” O’Connor said. “We play a lot of man-to-man and they do a nice job with it.”

The Mariners – who came in at 2-2 – also rushed for just 66 yards and finished with 183 total yards.

Pilgrim surged in the other direction, racking up 245 yards rushing. Anyango finished with 114 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries, while Cooney had 89 yards on 13 carries. Kelly rushed for 56 yards before his injury. McKay, a sophomore, completed 4-of-6 passes for 42 yards.

The Pats are now undefeated at home, and the 2-2 league record has them firmly in the Division III mix. They still have to play undefeated Middletown and 3-1 East Greenwich, but they’ve also got 1-3 Toll Gate and 1-3 Hope on the docket. The Pats will visit Middletown on Friday before a match-up with Toll Gate on Nov. 1.

“We’re 2-2 in the league,” O’Connor said, “and I think we’re headed in the right direction.”

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