West shuts out Woonsocket for first league win

The Cranston Herald ·

The Cranston West Falcons swooped in and seized a 14-0 win from the Woonsocket Villa Novans at Barry Field on Saturday afternoon.

West head coach Steve Stoehr was happy with his team’s effort throughout the contest.

“The kids hung in there,” Stoehr said. “They played hard. They put together four quarters of football, which the last couple of weeks we haven’t been able to do.”

The first quarter was played in the pouring rain and both squads had problems holding onto the ball.

West received first and started from its own 40. On second down, running back Will Such charged six yards to the 46. After the Woonsocket defense stuffed Such on third and 4, West punted to the Woonsocket 26.

West would get the ball back within seconds. On second down, the Woonsocket center botched the snap over the head of senior quarterback Justin Mojica and West defensive lineman Jeff Wardle sprinted to grab possession, giving West the ball back at the Woonsocket 14.

After running back Josh Pereira suffered a loss of five yards on first down, West faced fourth down deep in the Woonsocket red zone. They went for it. Quarterback Cam Harris connected with Michael O’Neill, but the senior tight end was brought down shy of the marker and Woonsocket took over on downs.

On second down, another fumble was reclaimed by West.

The Falcons took over at the Woonsocket 5. On first down, Harris fed sophomore running back Evan Degaitas and he fumbled and Woonsocket defensive end Logan Burda pounced on it, giving the ball back to Woonsocket at its own 5 with 5:15 remaining in the first quarter.

The West defense was stout throughout the game and on this drive, especially. On first down, Emmanuel Gomes was hit for a loss of three. The West defense pushed Woonsocket back to its own 1 and forced them to punt on fourth and long.

West took over deep in Woonsocket territory at the 24-yard line. On first down, Such ran out to the 10 before he was knocked out of bounds. However, on the next play, the handoff from Harris was miscalculated which led to a fumble, and Woonsocket’s Elijah Williams recovered it at the Woonsocket 13.

Gomes was jammed by the West defense on first down. On second down, Such rushed Mojica, forcing the quarterback to throw it away. On third down, Henery Camacho was open up the middle, but dropped a pass from Mojica and on fourth down deep in their own territory, kicker Manuel Ceballos punted to the Woonsocket 41.

Such rushed right for a gain of four on the first play of the ensuing drive. On second down, Such ran to the 30 for a first down. On the next play, Such fumbled and Ceballos regained possession for Woonsocket at its own 23.  

It wouldn’t take long for the Falcons to get the ball back, though. On second down, Mojica’s pass was intercepted by West senior defensive back Karim Jamous, who brought it to the Woonsocket 34.

A penalty against West on second down, pushed the Falcons’ offense back to the Woonsocket 48. On the next play, Harris completed a pass to O’Neill to the Woonsocket 30. Then, Such rushed eight yards to the 22 for a first down. Next, Such ran 10 yards to the 12. On first down, Harris ran a draw to the 1-yard line. Such capped the drive when he charged in for the touchdown with 9:00 left in the second quarter. Kicker Gianmarco Coppola De Almarza added the extra point, giving West a 7-0 lead.

Later in the second quarter the Falcons went on the offensive. Such charged seven yards to the West 37 on the first play of the drive. On second-and-3, Such ran right three yards to the West 40 for a first down with 2:20 left in the half. On third down, Such scurried up the middle to the West 46. The Falcons elected to go for it on fourth-and-4. Such powered forward only two yards, coming up shy of the marker and West turned the ball over to Woonsocket with less than a minute to play in the opening half.

After a false start on first down, Woonsocket faced a second and 15 from the West 41. Mojica threw incomplete to Zach MacIntyre with 44.2 seconds left. After an incompletion to Davis, Mojica threw a screen pass to Gomes, who took it to the West 24 for a first down. On second down, Mojica’s pass to Camacho in the endzone was dropped. On third down, Mojica’s pass was picked off by Such and returned to the West 44 with 6.8 seconds remaining. West went into halftime holding a 7-0 lead.

Woonsocket started the second half from its own 41-yard line. On first down, Mojica connected with Camacho for a gain of seven to the Woonsocket 48. However, on third down, Woonsocket was penalized 10 yards and pushed back to the 41. Next, Mojica ran a keeper for seven yards, but ultimately came up short of the marker and Woonsocket punted it away on fourth down.

West took over at its own 48. On third-and-8, Harris completed a pass to Such, but the running back was stopped by Burda for no gain. On fourth down, West punted to the Woonsocket 33.

On third down, Mojica’s pass was picked off by O’Neill, who returned it 67 yards for a touchdown with 5:35 to play in the third quarter, putting West up 14-0.

West lost its starting quarterback Nick Dionizio earlier in the season when he suffered a broken collarbone in a game against Portsmouth. Harris, a junior, has taken the reigns as the signal caller since.

The coach thinks that his squad will continue having difficulty running the ball until Harris makes opposing defenses respect his arm.

“We’re going to have trouble with everybody in the box until our quarterback starts throwing a little more,” Stoehr said. “On a rainy day like today, it was a little trouble.”

West welcomes St. Raphael on Friday night.