Unbeaten Rams score late, hand Hawks first loss

Kevin Pomeroy, Sports Editor
Posted 11/11/14

The good news is that the long-term goal for the Bishop Hendricken football team was hardly damaged by a rare loss on Friday night.

The bad news is that the Hawks were tripped up for the first …

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Unbeaten Rams score late, hand Hawks first loss

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The good news is that the long-term goal for the Bishop Hendricken football team was hardly damaged by a rare loss on Friday night.

The bad news is that the Hawks were tripped up for the first time all season by their biggest rival.

Hendricken couldn’t hold on to a 9-0 halftime lead, as Kyron Lopes’ 10-yard touchdown run in the final minute of play gave La Salle a 15-9 victory over the previously unbeaten Hawks.

Hendricken is now 6-1 and has clinched the No. 2 seed in the Division I playoffs, while the Rams are 7-0 and will be the top seed when the postseason begins.

On a cold, windy night at Hendricken, the game was the type that usually takes place between the two programs. It came down to the wire, with only a handful of plays making the difference.

It was just the sixth loss in the last five seasons for Hendricken.

“La Salle played their hearts out, we played our hearts out,” said Hendricken head coach Keith Croft. “This is a typical Hendricken-La Salle game. I said before the game that whoever had the ball last was probably going to win, and they made more plays than we did, plain and simple.”

The Hawks looked like they were going to escape with the victory on a night when their offense managed only 195 total yards, especially after Power Kanga made a shoestring tackle on La Salle’s Don’Trae Odufunade on fourth-and-4 with only three minutes remaining and Hendricken leading 9-7, giving the ball back to Hendricken with a chance to close out the game.

The Hawks took over on their own 20-yard line at that point and ran quarterback John Toppa on three consecutive plays, the third of which was a third-and-5 play.

Had Hendricken picked up that first down it likely could have run out the clock and picked up the win. But Croft elected to run the ball, making La Salle burn its final timeout instead.

“[Offensive coordinator Frank Pantaelo] asked me (if we should pass) and I said, ‘No, run the clock and make them burn another timeout,’” Croft said. “If I could do that again I’d do the exact same thing. You always try to play the clock in that situation.”

Once Toppa came up short of the first down, Hendricken punted, giving the ball to La Salle at midfield with 2:04 to play.

On first down, the Hawks were called for a personal foul, horse collar tackle, giving the Rams 15 free yards. Two plays later, on second-and-12, Odufunade broke through a group of Hendricken defenders and found the outside, gaining 27 yards to set up first-and-goal.

Lopes did the rest on the next play, taking a direct snap in relief of quarterback Jace Pena and pushing the pile up the middle into the end zone. Pena then threw a conversion pass to Elijah McLean for the final points with 39 seconds left.

“It’s disappointing,” Croft said. “We had the ball with under three minutes to go and couldn’t get the first down. We had them on that last drive in a second-and-long, we had the kid contained in the backfield.”

Hendricken took over at its own 42-yard line, but Toppa was sacked on first down and a completion to Lee Moses on second down picked up 38 yards, but he didn’t get out of bounds until the clock was at zero, ending the game.

That play was the longest from scrimmage for the Hawks all night, as they found little running room and were stopped for loss on 12 separate plays.

With the absence of running back Gary Gibbs – who hurt his knee the previous week against Cranston West – Hendricken had just 84 yards rushing, with Toppa picking up 43 of those. Through the air, the Hawks threw 23 passes but had only 111 yards to show for it.

Moses was the team’s leading receiver with 99 yards on eight catches.

“I think our athletes, we kind of contained them most of the night, and they did the same for us,” Croft said. “But they were a little more physical at the end and it showed.”

Hendricken jumped out to a 3-0 lead early in the game, as La Salle fumbled the opening kickoff and Jake Derderian rumbled 22 yards on the Hawks’ second play from scrimmage, setting up Ryan Blais’s 33-yard field goal.

Hendricken extended its advantage to 9-0 near the end of the half, as Toppa worked the two-minute drill perfectly, completing four out of five passes on a drive that started with 1:43 left, culminating in a 26-yard touchdown pass to Moses in the right corner of the end zone on a fade route. The extra point was no good.

The Rams forced a three-and-out on the Hawks’ first drive of the second half, and then went on their best drive of the game. They took nearly five minutes off the clock, as they ran the ball 12 consecutive times until it was fourth-and-7 on Hendricken’s 11-yard line.

La Salle called for a halfback pass, and Pena handed the ball off to Lopes, who found McLean for a touchdown in the right side of the end zone. Andrew Salzillo converted the extra point to make it 9-7.

Neither team scored again until La Salle won the game in the final minute.

The Rams rushed for 212 yards, with Odufunade leading the way with 70. Lopes added 59 and C.J. Waite added 35.

“They’re tough, because they’re kind of deceptive,” Croft said. “They can do kind of both things. They can be big and physical when they want, and they’ve also got some pretty good athletes with decent speed.”

Both teams have one game remaining in the regular season. Hendricken will be at one-win South Kingstown on Friday at 7 p.m., while La Salle will host Cumberland at the same time.

“We’ve got to bounce back next week against a good South Kingstown team and take our shot,” Croft said.

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