Despite a second-half rally, the Johnston football team came up short in its season opener when reigning Division IV champion North Providence held on to win 19-15 in its first game in DIII.
The Cougars shut down the Johnston offense and took a 12-0 lead into the halftime break. Johnston’s offense found its rhythm in the third and would get on the board when Dean Paris rushed for a 5-yard score, set up on a big reception from Lyalo Harrison-Perez.
The Panthers drove again, but NP would haul in an interception in the end zone. Daniel Gomez would return possession to Johnston when he recovered a fumble at the NP 10-yard line. Paris would go on to rush for another score and give the Panthers a 15-12 lead. Paris rushed for a 2-point conversion as well.
Although the Johnston defense played a clean third quarter, the Cougars would manage to piece together one final drive and get the game-winning score with 2:09 remaining in the fourth before coming up with the game-sealing stop on defense.
It was a tough opening half for Johnston, who saw players go down with various issues like cramping, including Paris, who has been the team’s top rusher and captain on defense. Having to shuffle the lineup put the Panthers in an early bind, according to head coach Joe Acciardo.
“Our personnel was all over the place. To not have Dean in the first half, we were kind of scrambling. We’d get our footing, then we’d get a cramp, then our personnel changes, then we have someone else cramping. We don’t have the depth to do that stuff, so hopefully they’ll learn to take care of themselves. They’re kids, we’re young and this was a growing pain,” Acciardo said.
Johnston is still sorting out its lineup after graduating a significant senior core form last season’s roster. Despite the loss, the Acciardo was satisfied with the team’s effort and the performance of some of the younger players.
“(North Providence) is a really good team, I’m proud of the effort that the guys put in. They had some good drives and played with heart. It’s just the little things we need to work on,” said Acciardo. “We have some good leadership so I hope that we’ll grow and look back on this as a learning experience. The end of the season will be better than the beginning, we just need to keep moving forward.”