THANKSGIVING PREVIEWS

Age-old rivals duke it out one more time

By Jacob Marrocco
Posted 11/27/15

No matter what the Pilgrim or Warwick Vets football teams did during the season, there was always Thanksgiving.

In 2014, Pilgrim narrowly missed the Division III playoffs with a 4-4 record while …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in
THANKSGIVING PREVIEWS

Age-old rivals duke it out one more time

Posted

No matter what the Pilgrim or Warwick Vets football teams did during the season, there was always Thanksgiving.

In 2014, Pilgrim narrowly missed the Division III playoffs with a 4-4 record while Vets suffered a winless season in Division II. The two battled on Thanksgiving, but Pilgrim’s early dominance gave it a 42-21 win.

This year is similar. The Pats made the postseason this year, but were outscored 81-8 in their final two games of the season including playoffs. The ’Canes again went winless in D-II, but did get a non-league victory over Pilgrim’s divisional foe, Narragansett.

None of that matters anymore, as both teams have just one game left. So does the rivalry itself.

“It’s the one thing you talk about to your kids in February or March, where the rest of the schedule you don’t know, or you’re not concerned with yet,” Vets head coach Rob Pacifico said of the rivalry. “Thanksgiving morning, you have a football game to play before you get to your turkey. It’s the one thing that’s circled on the calendar before you know anything.”

This won’t be the last meeting between teams from Vets and Pilgrim, but it is likely the most important. The Pats and the ’Canes have met annually every season since 1963, spanning a few generations, with Vets holding the all-time series lead, 29-22-1.

“I take it as all bets are off,” Pilgrim head coach Tom O’Connor said about what he takes from the rivalry. “It doesn’t matter on paper who should win. Emotions come and you get kids, high school kids, with emotions, it’s a coin flip every year.”

The series started out heavily in Pilgrim’s favor. The Pats won the first six of eight meetings, shutting out the ’Canes four times in a row from 1964-67. Then, Vets won five of six from 1971 to 1976, with the sole exception being 1975, the year of Pilgrim’s only championship, when the Pats won 20-0.

Then, Pilgrim won five in a row. After that, Vets took seven of nine.

It went back and forth for several years in the 1990s before the ’Canes reeled off six straight from 1997 to 2002. Since 2003, the ’Canes have won six matchups, while the Pats have won six as well.

It doesn’t matter to Vets that it wasn’t able to take away any wins in Division II. The Pats were unceremoniously defeated in the D-III semifinals, but they will have to shake off the loss to get ready for a team playing for as much pride as they are.

“They’re brothers fighting in the backyard,” Pacifico said. “That’s what this game is. This is the ultimate intra-city rivalry, it’s always been.”

Both teams are, for the most part, healthy heading into today’s matchup. Behind center, it’s a battle of seniors. Vets quarterback Nick Beaufort has the ability to dodge pass rushers and find weapons down field, such as senior wide receiver Jacob Isaac or junior pass catcher Richard Bateman.

Pacifico said Beaufort “should have a good game” against the Pats.

On the Pilgrim side, senior signal caller David McMullen has been impressive through the air and on the ground. He’s worked out of long-yardage situations this season, including a fourth-and-long touchdown heave to Ty Weldon-Martin against Hope earlier this year. He can also elude defenders, taking the occasional wildcat handoff from running back Owen Kelly.

Kelly could be the difference maker today. He is just 113 yards short of 2,000 on the season, and he’s had several 200-plus-yard performances throughout the campaign. Perhaps his most dominant outing was in Pilgrim’s 30-20 win over Middletown, in which he dashed for 305 yards and all four Pats touchdowns. Shutting down Kelly can force McMullen to pass more than he wants to, but that is a task much easier said than done for the ’Canes.

Kelly and McMullen will have their hands full on the other side of the ball as well covering the tall Isaac and the shifty Bateman. If Pilgrim’s pass rush can’t get to Beaufort, and the young Vets line stands tall to the challenge, it will give time to Isaac and Bateman to get open down field.

However, as the cliche goes, in order to get the passing game going, there has to be some semblance of a running game, too. Michael Isles needs to be strong out of the backfield for the ’Canes so that Beaufort’s offense doesn’t become predictable. Look for Darren Grant to have some key tackling at the second level to prevent big runs. Giving up big yardage on the ground almost proved costly for the Pats against Middletown earlier in the year, and did cost them against Classical in the semifinals.

Ultimately, Pilgrim might have one too many weapons for Vets to cover or cancel out. Though both sides want to pull this win down to notch the last win in the record books, it means much more.

“We just need to go and play Hurricane football,” Pacifico said. “It’s that simple. We’re getting healthy, which is good. It’s gonna be a good game, it’s gonna be a close game. We’ll see what happens.”

It signals the end of a battle between the two oldest public schools in Warwick, which has entertained, saddened and enlivened thousands for decades.

Neither side is ever guaranteed victory, but the one common denominator every season is respect. At the end of the game, regardless of outcome, the two sides shake hands and leave for family and food.

“After the game, you quickly see the love, and that’s what it’s like,” Pacifico said.

It will be the same this time, but with a much more somber feel to it. The state loses one of the matchups it is most thankful for, but its history won’t be forgotten.

“It means everything,” O’Connor said. “A lot of years, when either program is down, we end up, that’s all we play for, the Thanksgiving Day game. It’s the best rivalry in the state and it’s real sad to see it go.”

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here