Super Bowl bound

Pats upset Tolman 30-14 in semifinals

By ALEX SPONSELLER
Posted 11/15/18

The No. 3 Pilgrim football team pulled off the upset and topped No. 2 Tolman 30-14 in the Division III semifinals last week. The Patriots punched their ticket to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1995 with the win, and are excited for the

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Super Bowl bound

Pats upset Tolman 30-14 in semifinals

Posted

The No. 3 Pilgrim football team pulled off the upset and topped No. 2 Tolman 30-14 in the Division III semifinals last week.

The Patriots punched their ticket to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1995 with the win, and are excited for the opportunity to finish as one of the all-time great teams to come out of the school.

“It was huge, the emotions on the sidelines after the game. These kids know that they’re writing their names in the history books right now. For it to be the first team to get a postseason win in 23 years and to potentially be the second team to ever win a Super Bowl at Pilgrim, it’s huge,” said Pilgrim head coach Blake Simpson.

Pilgrim would take an early lead when Cesar Pascual took a handoff 19 yards for a score to make it 8-0. Demitri Ayres would extend the lead later with a touchdown rush of his own, followed by another successful 2-point PAT to extend the lead.

Mike Borges would also score a rushing touchdown in the quarter to make it 24-0, and would add one more rushing score later on to set the score at 30-14 and secure the win.

After a rocky start in which the Pats dropped three straight games and fell to 2-3, they would rebound and surge to three consecutive wins to close out the regular season. With the team’s fourth straight win, Simpson believes that the Patriots are finally hitting their peak performance.

“We’ve been building off of these wins every week. It all started during that second half against North Providence, these guys are buying in to what we’ve been preaching all year long. They now know that they have a legitimate shot at this,” said Simpson. “The intensity, the competitiveness at practice over the past couple of weeks has increased tremendously since the beginning of the year. Iron sharpens iron.”

Last week’s win was also a redemption victory for the Pats, who fell to Tolman 42-18 in a lopsided defeat earlier in the season.

“The first time around we had a few key injuries. We were missing Ethan Laramee, we were missing Connor Fallon, Mike Borges got his cast off two days before the game. We were a lot more composed and disciplined this time around,” said Simpson. “The first time we played them, 4 of our first 6 drives started off with a penalty. We only had two offensive penalties this game which was huge for us.”

The Patriots will face their biggest test to date, taking on No. 1 Central Falls, who topped them 36-6 in the regular season.

“I think if we show up the way we did against Tolman then we’ll have a good shot. The first time we faced Central Falls we also had injuries, we didn’t have our quarterback, didn’t have a few key guys on defense. We’re getting healthy at the right time, that’s the formula to win a Super Bowl,” said Simpson.

Saturday’s contest will also mark the final meaningful football game that the Pilgrim seniors will play in the black and white, and Simpson will miss their presence and appreciates the hard work they put in, especially as a first-year head coach.

“I’m going to miss their camaraderie and their leadership. We have a lot of leaders in the junior class as well, but with our senior captains, words can’t describe what they mean to me,” said Simpson. “For all they do, Jaron Petrozzi leads by example, Mark Brown is our vocal leader, I enjoy relying on them to help me out as a first-year head coach.”

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