High-Flying Hawks Fall to the Rams

by Remy Morris

The Rhode Island High School Football "Game of the Century" - at least that was one of the names being ascribed to the showdown that was set to take place at Dennis Hayden Stadium on the Hendricken campus last night.....and with good reason.

We can start with the simpler notion that since this century is only about 15 years old, it could be quite accurate to say that this might actually have been the single most important regular season high school football game in Rhode Island since the turn of Y2K.

The Hawks and Rams - as natural and heated a rivalry (albeit one rooted in respect) as Red Sox-Yankees, or, perhaps in football terms, Michigan-Ohio State - were about to cross paths on their regular season schedule, each carrying an identical 6-0 record. Beyond the obvious rivalry, there was so much at stake in this game: the Hawks as four-time defending state champions, the Rams - the team that was supposed to have won two of those four titles, and the top seed heading into the quickly-approaching state tournament.

Hard to imagine more of a buildup.

There was an incredible atmosphere even before the game started, which started to develop when "Mangate", Hendricken's form of tailgating, arrived at the field around 6:00. La Salle's "beehive" arrived around 6:30, as the second layer of the rivalry began to intensify - the rooting-section showdown.

Media coverage was off the charts. The Providence Journal's slideshow of the game can be seen right HERE.

As always, The Network had plenty of personnel assigned to the game for wall-to-wall coverage: Cam Brennan and Stone Freeman were on the mic, DT Barron held down social media updates, Colton Capobianco provided some Instagram and YouTube work at sideline level, and as always, Ben Macksoud took care of game stats down on the field.

Before we get to the game, however, a couple of points of interest where The Network is concerned should be noted. In addition to our live coverage of the game (once again breaking our previous viewership records, which, given the magnitude of the game, shouldn't be too much of a surprise), NBC10 and Cox Sports also had the game live (which made for quite the cramped press box). Channel 10's Frank Carpano was gracious enough to arrive a bit earlier than he normally would have in order to do a live pre-game show with Stone and Cam, which can be seen in its entirety right here:

Once again, we'd like to thank Mr. Carpano for giving some of his time to us, especially given the nature of his schedule.

The other noteworthy point was that one of Hendricken's own sons returned last night, making the trip back up to Rhode Island just to see this game - our own Will Blackmon, starting cornerback for the Jacksonville Jaguars (unfortunately, Will is out for the season with a broken hand. While we obviously want to see him back on the field as soon as possible, it worked out pretty well for us last night). It's really quite difficult to put into words what an incredibly great person Will is and has become, and he was as gracious with all requests as he's ever been....though he did point out on more than a few occasions how much he does not miss the cold in Little Rhody.

At halftime he sat down with The Network's own Colton Capobianco for a brief interview, the write-up for which you can see at The Talon (hendrickennewsnetwork.com). That interview can be seen right here:

Now, let's get to the game. The Hawks kicked off at 7:07 pm, in windy conditions and a temperature of 45 degrees. Things started off with an immediate bang, as La Salle fumbled the opening kickoff. The ball was recovered by the Hawk's linebacker and tackling machine, Shane Olsen, at the La Salle 33-yard line. The La Salle defense stood tall, however, as they surrendered only 3 points, a Ryan Blais 33-yard field goal that gave the Hawks a 3-0 lead with 9:18 remaining in the first quarter.

It was, in fact, the outstanding defensive battle that became the theme of the entire night, as both teams either consistently punted or turned it over on downs - the latter point all the more interesting, since both Coach Croft of the Hawks and Coach Marcone of the Rams kept their offenses on the field for many 4th-down opportunities, most likely because they didn't feel that their opponent's offense would be able to move the ball against them anyway. With three minutes remaining in the first quarter, La Salle went for it on one of those 4th downs and took a shot at the end zone. Not suprisingly, the ball was batted away by the Hawks' standout cornerback and URI commit, Power Kanga.

Though the Rams began to move the ball somewhat consistently on the ground during the second quarter, the Hawks ultimately managing to hold their ground. Toward the end of the first half, the Hawks' defensive efforts were rewarded as QB John Toppa connected with Lee Moses on a 26-yard touchdown pass, Toppa's 7th scoring strike of the season and good enough to give the Hawks a 9-0 lead going into the half.

The strong defensive battle continued into the 3rd quarter until 5:19 mark, as the Rams finally dented the scoreboard with a trick play that resulted in a nine-yard touchdown pass from Kyron Lopes to Elijah McLean, cutting the Hawks' lead to a much more precarious two points, 9-7. Both defenses continued to stand tall as the 3rd quarter came to an end.

A Cameron Morenzi interception on a pass targeted to Lee Moses from John Toppa seemed to give the game a different feel - in the Maroon's favor - as crunch time began bearing down on both teams during the fourth quarter. La Salle was unable to convert that turnover into points, however. The time on the clock slowly and painfully dwindled away to just over two minutes remaining in the game as the Rams took possession of the ball after having stopped our guys on a three-and-out, which, as it turns out, was the Hawks' final opportunity to record a first down and to ice the game. The Hawks then compounded their problems by committing a 15-yard facemask penalty, moving the Rams from their own 49-yard line to the Hawks' 36. The Rams then ran the ball right down the field with Odufande, finishing off the drive and the Hawks when Lopes ran the ball 10 yards into the end zone, giving La Salle a 15-9 lead with only 39 ticks remaining, which was not time enough for the Hawks to go the length of the field for the tying touchdown.

The La Salle defense more than did its job against Toppa and the Hawks' offense, and they secured the number one seed for the state tournament with the 15-9 win. The Rams improved to 7-0, while our guys fall to 6-1 but have still locked down a home playoff game in the semi-final round of the playoffs.

Next Friday night the Hawks look to pick themselves up and to move forward when they travel down to South Kingstown to take on the Rebels in their final regular-season league matchup of the year. Game time is 7pm, and The Network will be there with its usual live coverage.