Football Takes Wind out of the Clippers' Sails, 34-7

Last night, the Hawks' football team - the four-time defending state champions - came into Tucker Field in Cumberland with a 4-0 mark in Division I play and a 5-0 mark overall.

What's to complain about, right? Everything's going according to plan, right?

Well, probably not so much...at least by the standards to which Coach Croft, the rest of the coaching staff, and the players hold themselves.

If one were to ask the coaches about that unblemished record, they'd probably respond with a "Yes, but...", before launching into a driven-to-distraction mini-tirade about the number of maddening penalties and mistakes committed by players on both sides of the ball that have resulted in a couple of the games and portions of others as being unnecessarily nerve-wracking. The game from last week against Cranston East was just the latest and possibly best and/or worst example of the trend, depending on one's perspective.

Apparently, a week's worth of practice - no doubt intense practice - seems to have cleared up some of the problems, as the Hawks greatly reduced their penalties and mistakes en route to a convincing 34-7 win over the Cumberland Clippers.

As this column always points out, The Network crew was there with their usual live coverage - Stone and Cam providing the play-by-play and analysis, "DT" Barron handling the camera, and Sam LaFrance putting game developments out on social media as well as monitoring the other high school football action and updates from around the state.

After the first drive of the game, there was every reason to believe that the Hawks would be in for yet another close game, as the Clippers opened with an impressive, methodical march down the field, a march that was driven by a series of out-routes and sideline passes, complemented by some tough running that always resulted in the necessary yardage and first downs. In addition, the methodical nature of the drive chewed up nearly nine minutes of the twelve-minute first quarter, which left the Hawks trailing 7-0 and with little time to draw even in the opening part of the game.

On the very next play of the game, however (following the kickoff), Jake Derderian - getting his first serious playing time at running back - took the handoff from John Toppa, broke through the Clippers' line and secondary defense, and rumbled nearly 80 yards for what appeared to be the tying touchdown....which was called back for......

....you guessed it. A penalty against the Hawks. That Play can be seen here -

Though it wasn't a penalty at the line that would have brought the ball all the way back to the original line of scrimmage and then some, it did place the ball back at the Clippers' 21-yard line rather than resulting in six points for the Hawks. About a minute or so later, Toppa ran it in for the first of his three touchdowns on the night, and the game was tied.

Throughout the course of the game, Derderian continued to have a strong game. A couple of his other runs can be seen here -

Almost immediately after our guys had tied the game at seven, they made things happen on defense, as a strip sack and fumble run into the end zone put them up 13-7 (the extra point failed). That play can be seen here -

While that one play certainly didn't completely take the wind out of the Clippers' sails, it did seem to have an effect on the feel of the game, as from that point the Hawks' momentum seemed to increase just as methodically as Cumberland had run its opening drive. By halftime the score was 27-7, a lead that was stretched to 34-7 during the third frame, which effectively put the game out of reach.

Even then, though, there was till one more eye-popping highlight play from the Hawks. Late in the game, with the Clippers putting something together on one of their final drives, the Big Blue running back broke through the Hawks' defense and was off to the races for what appeared to be their second touchdown - except, of course, defensive end Kwity Paye had other ideas, as he channeled his best combination of Ben Watson and Don Beebe (for those of you old enough to remember those iconic NFL moments) and ran down a running back, stripped the ball at the one-yard line, and contributed to the Hawks' recovering the fumble in the end zone, resulting in a touchback.

I guess Kwity has always taken to heart the ideas of playing to the whistle and all 48 minutes. I mean, like...WOW.

The more optimistic item to emerge from the game was, of course, the Hawks' significantly cutting down on pentalties and mistakes, especially since the regular season is quickly approaching its latter stage and the playoffs are then not too far behind. In two weeks (this Friday is their bye week) the Hawks return to Cranston Stadium to take on the Falcons of Cranston West, after which another undefeated team looms on the horizon - the LaSalle Academy Rams.

Before that epic matchup can happen, of course, our guys have to repeat last night's performance and take care of Cranston West. The Network will be there with live coverage as usual. Let's travel well again and let our guys know that we've got their backs.