Hawks soar past Patriots, set up marquee Super Bowl

Running game accounts for nearly 300 yards in the win; La Salle on deck

Kevin Pomeroy, Sports Editor
Posted 11/25/14

The quest for five is still alive.

On Friday night, the Bishop Hendricken football team put itself one win away from a fifth consecutive state title, knocking off third-seeded Portsmouth 32-21 in …

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Hawks soar past Patriots, set up marquee Super Bowl

Running game accounts for nearly 300 yards in the win; La Salle on deck

Posted

The quest for five is still alive.

On Friday night, the Bishop Hendricken football team put itself one win away from a fifth consecutive state title, knocking off third-seeded Portsmouth 32-21 in the Division I semifinals.

The No. 2 Hawks used a crushing defensive effort in the second half to corral the Patriots’ single-wing rushing attack, and Hendricken – even without top back Gary Gibbs – accounted for 298 yards on the ground in the win.

Lee Moses scored a pair of touchdowns and had an interception, while John Toppa, Power Kanga and Matt DiTondo also found the end zone for the Hawks.

“It’s a great feeling,” said Hendricken head coach Keith Croft. “I’m happy for the players. I’m very happy for the coaches, who I think work very hard and they don’t get their names in headlines or anything. It’s a team effort.”

The win sets up a Super Bowl showdown on Dec. 6 at Cranston Stadium with top-seeded La Salle, which knocked off No. 4 Cranston East 14-7 in the other semifinal on the same night.

It’s the third time in four years that the two rivals have met in the championship game, with Hendricken spoiling the Rams’ perfect seasons in both 2011 and 2012.

The Hawks will be trying to do the exact same thing once this Super Bowl rolls around, and with the way they played over the final 24 minutes on Friday, they look plenty capable of getting that done.

Hendricken, which has had one of the top passing attacks in the state, threw the ball only twice all night, as six different players rushed for at least 25 yards. Moses, typically a receiver, lined up often in the backfield and ran for 105 yards on 13 carries, including a 64-yard touchdown in the second quarter when he exploded through the left side on an option pitch and went untouched to the finish line.

Toppa added 54 yards rushing, DiTondo had 38, Shane Olson had 40, Power Kanga had 33 and Jake Derderian added 25.

“Gary was a huge loss, but we have so much depth,” Olson said. “Everyone is good. Jake Derderian, Matt DiTondo. Me, Lee, Power stepped up too. We have so many athletes on the team that we can fill that spot.”

Defensively, Hendricken’s top-ranked unit put forth a stellar performance, especially after it adjusted to Portsmouth’s single-back formation, which was a new wrinkle the Patriots put in just for this game.

On every play but four in the first half, Portsmouth lined up running back Ryan McDonald on a wing, sent him in a slow motion behind the quarterback, then called the snap and flipped the ball to McDonald as he charged towards the line.

The result was a plodding attack that was effective initially, as the Patriots scored on their second possession, which was comprised of 15 plays and six first downs.

“We knew they were going to do something a little funky,” Croft said. “They went back to the old school Portsmouth, the single-wing. It’s not something you prepare for, and we didn’t. But it’s the type of offense that you have to stay patient against and hope you have a tackle in the backfield and make it second-and-15 or something.”

And the Hawks made the proper adjustments, put all 11 players in the box for the majority of the night and shut down McDonald the rest of the way after that long drive. He finished the game with 162 yards on the ground, but he scored twice on runs of 40 and 22 yards late in the fourth quarter against Hendricken’s second-unit when the game was well out of reach.

Portsmouth attempted just eight passes, completing only one of them for five yards.

“They kind of caught us a little bit off-guard,” Moses said. “That’s a new formation for them. [Defensive coordinator Mike Green] did a great job of adjusting our defense and we just found a way to stop it.”

On the other side of the ball, Hendricken did its job, too. Kanga scored on the Hawks’ first possession from 6 yards out to make it 6-0, and after Portsmouth scored on its 15-play drive on a 1-yard plunge from quarterback Evan Criner, Hendricken regained the lead for good on its next possession on Moses’ 64-yard scamper.

Leading 13-7 at the break, Hendricken made it 19-7 on a 1-yard Toppa touchdown on the Hawks’ second drive of the second half, and a 26-yard punt return by Bret Langlais set up another Hendricken touchdown, this one on a 14-yard run by DiTondo.

Moses then put the nail in the coffin with an interception of quarterback John Coyne that he returned 56 yards to the 3-yard line. On the next play, he pounded the ball into the end zone to make it 32-7 and put the game out of reach.

“They’re a cool group,” Croft said. “My coaches were saying, ‘How do we get them up?’ I said, ‘Look, we’ve been through this enough. When the lights come on Friday night, they’ll show up.’”

Portsmouth ended up scoring twice more in the game’s final seven minutes, but the Hawks smothered two onside kicks and bled out the clock to finish the job.

In the second half, against Hendricken’s top defensive unit, the Patriots punted on their first three possessions and threw an interception on the fourth. They picked up just one first down and gained 18 total yards on those four drives.

“It’s great. The team played well, overall,” Olson said. “The defense stepped it up. We didn’t even know the first formation. They came out and we were all confused. But we made adjustments and we executed really well.”

Going forward, Hendricken will focus initially on Toll Gate and the annual Thanksgiving game, which will be held on Wednesday this year at 6 p.m. at Hendricken.

Then it’s on to the Super Bowl, where the Hawks are making their eighth appearance in nine years.

“It just feels good, because I was there my sophomore year and my junior year,” Moses said. “To be back my senior year is an unbelievable feeling.”

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