Football Focus

Unbeaten Hawks, unbeaten Rams square off for D-I's top spot

Kevin Pomeroy, Sports Editor
Posted 11/6/14

Last year was the rare exception, when the annual Bishop Hendricken-La Salle Academy football team didn’t mean quite as much as it normally does.

The Hawks had already clinched a top-two seed in …

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Football Focus

Unbeaten Hawks, unbeaten Rams square off for D-I's top spot

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Last year was the rare exception, when the annual Bishop Hendricken-La Salle Academy football team didn’t mean quite as much as it normally does.

The Hawks had already clinched a top-two seed in Division I at the time, and the Rams were on their way to missing the playoffs for the first time since 1999.

The game still turned out to be dramatic, with Hendricken’s Lee Moses scoring a late touchdown and then picking off La Salle quarterback Jace Pena in the end zone to seal the win for the Hawks. Yet, it lacked the high stakes that seemingly always accompany the state’s best football rivalry.

This season, there are no such concerns.

The 6-0, top-ranked Hawks will play host to the 6-0, No. 2 ranked Rams this Friday night, with the No. 1 seed in the Division I playoffs on the line. Both teams have already clinched playoff berths, but a potential undefeated season and the overall top spot in the state entering the postseason make the contest as enticing as any, in any division, all season long.

“You want to win the big prize,” said Hendricken head coach Keith Croft. “You want to go wire-to-wire, as they say. And we’ll see what happens.”

An undefeated season may not seem like a lot to play for – and the winner of Friday’s game would still have to win the following week to achieve it – but it’s an extremely rare feat in Division I.

The Hawks have only done it twice, as they won the Super Bowl with perfect records during the 1995 and 2010 seasons. La Salle has done it a bit more often, going unbeaten seven times in the Super Bowl era.

The two teams have also combined to win five of the last six Super Bowls. Including this season, one of the two programs has finished with a share of the D-I regular season title ever year for the last seven seasons.

“This rivalry, at this point, it’s transcended just high school football,” Croft said. “You run into people – I was voting the other day and I had on a Hendricken jacket – and there was a a guy who had no connection to either school and he said, Good luck Friday.’ He knew we were playing L Salle. It’s transcended fans, alumni, players and now it’s part of the general public.”

Friday’s game should feature two teams that are as even as they’ve been in years.

La Salle leads the division with 186 points scored, while Hendricken is just behind with 184. Defensively, Hendricken leads with only 90 points allowed, and the Rams are second with just 105 given up.

In the past few seasons, one of them has stood above the other, at least statistically. That’s not the case this time.

“They’re pretty similar to us,” Croft said. “They’ve got some athletes that can spread you out. It’s Hendricken-La Salle. There’s going to be a good amount of speed on the field, a good amount of athletes.”

The Hawks are coming off of a dominating two-stretch, where they defeated Cumberland 34-7 and then beat Cranston West 35-12 last week. Those performances were a far cry from how Hendricken had played in its previous game, a 26-25 win over Cranston East in which it committed well over 100 yards in penalties for the second consecutive game.

Croft is confident that the team’s mental mistakes are mostly in the past, as evidence by its recent play.

“I’m definitely happy with some of the steps we’ve taken,” Croft said. “I think we’ve made progress.”

Unfortunately for Hendricken, they’ll be trying to win Friday’s game, and their fifth straight Super Bowl, slightly shorthanded, as starting running back Gary Gibbs, a senior, suffered a knee injury against Cranston West and will miss the remainder of the season.

The Hawks have players in line to step up – junior Jake Derderian, senior Terrence Gibbs and sophomore Matt DiTondo – but the loss of Gary Gibbs still hurts.

“It’s a tough loss for a lot of the kids,” Croft said. “Gary was a really a good kid, a heart-and-soul kind of kid. He’s been around for a lot of big wins.”

Luckily, Hendricken has plenty of other weapons, most notably quarterback John Toppa. The senior has rushed for 14 touchdowns and thrown for nine more in his first year under center.

The Hawks also have dynamic playmakers in seniors Lee Moses and Power Kanga, as well junior Caleb Wurster and sophomore Andrew Hopgood. Defensively, they’ve been led by players like Shane Olson, Christian Wesolowski, Kwity Paye and John Arruda.

But that whole group will have its hands full with La Salle. Pena, a senior, is in his third-year starting for the Rams and has developed into a solid dual-threat player.

Behind him, strong backs Kyron Lopes and Don’Trae Odufunade have led the way, combining for 16 rushing touchdowns.

Limiting those players on the ground is crucial, but the Hawks will have to play a well-rounded game centered on more than just that to win.

“I think they can beat you a number of ways,” Croft said. “I don’t think it’s the type of thing where we say, ‘We stop their running game, we win,’ but we definitely have to stop the run. The recipe is for disaster if you can’t stop the run.”

Hendricken hopes it has the recipe to stay unbeaten. Friday will be its toughest test of the season.

It’s the two best teams in the state, the two biggest rivals.

It’s Hendricken- La Salle.

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