Titans shred Spartans for first league win

By Matt Metcalf
Posted 9/27/16

Playing with heavy hearts on Friday night, the Toll Gate football team put together its most complete effort of the season, routing Scituate, 36-14, at North Smithfield High School to earn its first win. After learning of

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Titans shred Spartans for first league win

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Playing with heavy hearts on Friday night, the Toll Gate football team put together its most complete effort of the season, routing Scituate, 36-14, at North Smithfield High School to earn its first win.

After learning of the death of Principal Stephen Chrabaszcz earlier in the week, Toll Gate vowed to dedicate the rest of its season to him.

And the Titans would pay their respects to him following the emotional win, shouting ‘Chrabaszcz!,’ in the huddle to honor a man who was the football team’s biggest fan, rarely ever missing a game.

“These kids dedicated the rest of the season to Steve Chrabaszcz, and they did fantastic tonight,” Toll Gate head coach Jim Stringfellow said.

“After losing someone as close as Chrabaszcz was to the football program, we knew we had to step it up,” Toll Gate quarterback Anthony Vann said. “It was a huge loss for us. We knew we just had to step up.”

Vann certainly stepped up.

He was the biggest difference-maker in the game, torching Scituate’s defense all night on the ground and through the air, rushing for two touchdowns and tossing to senior wideout Rory Dobbins for another.

“Anthony Vann stepped it up to another level today,” Stringfellow said. “He took control of this game from the first quarter all the way to the fourth quarter. I thought this was the best game he’s had in three years at Toll Gate. That’s why he’s a captain.”

Vann would get the scoring started, notching the lone score in the first quarter on a short rush, plunging in from two yards out to give the Titans a 6-0 lead.

Scituate looked to respond with a drive midway through the second quarter, moving into Toll Gate territory, but the Spartans couldn’t cash in, as a field goal attempt came up very short to turn the ball over.

The Titans wouldn’t waste much time adding to their lead on the ensuing possession.

A couple of minutes later, it seemed as if Vann scored his second touchdown of the night when he raced into the end zone from 74 yards out, but the score was nullified due to a block-in-the-back penalty.

That didn’t deter the Titans, though.

A 15-yard run from Vann put Toll Gate at the Scituate 20, and Vann followed that play with a pass to an open Dobbins for a touchdown.

Vann rushed into the end zone for the 2-point conversion to give Toll Gate a 14-0 lead at the half.

The Titans and Spartans traded possessions for much of the third quarter, before a trick play from Toll Gate upped its cushion.

On fourth-and-long, Toll Gate snapped the ball to Anthony Calise on a fake punt play, and the senior caught Scituate’s punt return unit off guard, cruising to a 41-yard score to make it 20-0.

After that, Toll Gate’s defense continued to wreak havoc.

Just 20 seconds after the Calise touchdown, the Titans pressured Scituate quarterback Fox Fay into misfiring a throw right to Titans’ linebacker Max Laiter for an interception.

“We just wanted to get to the quarterback before they were throwing,” Toll Gate defensive standout Teagan Stringfellow said of the game plan. “If we were blitzing, we just wanted to stay on our man and play hard.”

And, less than two minutes later, Toll Gate found the end zone again, with Vann sprinting through Scituate for a 7-yard touchdown. Vann connected with fellow junior Qyon Pichardo for the 2-point conversion to make it 28-0.

The Spartans’ offense would get going a bit in the fourth quarter.

Fay connected with Tyler Baccaire for a 39-yard touchdown – Scituate’s longest play of the game – to cut the deficit to 28-7.

Toll Gate sophomore running back Michael Negri would get on the board, responding with a 30-yard dash to pay dirt to make it a 4-score game once again, 36-7.

Fay would rush in for a last-minute touchdown, but the game was well in hand at that point.

Toll Gate will look to stay in the win column on Saturday afternoon when it travels to Burrillville (1-0) at 2 p.m.

Getting the first win out of the way should do wonders for Toll Gate’s confidence.

“It’s going to boost it a lot,” Vann said of the team’s confidence level after getting a win. “Taking the win, we needed that win. It’s definitely going to boost our confidence.”

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