The Pilgrim football team traveled to Johnston and picked up a 14-0 win in a pivotal Division III matchup last Saturday afternoon. It was a defensive battle throughout with each squad making big stops throughout the 48 minutes. Ahead 7-0 with less than three minutes remaining,

Pilgrim would drive the ball 91 yards and punch in a score from Danny Halliwell to take the late 14-0 lead. Johnston would get one last chance in the final minutes, but Pilgrim’s Brady Burke would haul in an interception in the end zone to ice the game.

“We had to go 91 yards, but we used all of our hard work to drive it down their throats and to punch it in the end zone. It felt great to be able to do what I could to help this team and bring us success as a whole,” said Halliwell, who also rushed for Pilgrim’s first touchdown in the opening quarter.

“We had no reason to get away from the rushing game because we were gaining some pretty good yardage. We stuck to the game plan, chewed some clock and held onto the lead. Today was about just sustaining the lead and keeping up with the running game,” said Pilgrim head coach Blake Simpson.

“That was big. Again, we wanted to rely on the running game to keep the clock going. Hats off to our offensive line, who had its struggles in the early part of the season but has really come together at the right time.” Johnston had a few scoring chances in the game.

With 1:06 remaining in the second quarter, the Panthers would drive to the Pilgrim 14-yard line, but the Pats would hold them on fourth down. Pilgrim would also make another big stop in its own zone in the third quarter, as well a stop at its own 9-yard line to set up the final offensive drive in the fourth.

“It was crucial for our defense to have a performance like that. They’ve been giving up 30 points a game, so for them to allow zero points to a tough Johnston team is huge,” said Simpson.

The Johnston defense was also stout, coming up with multiple stops of its own, including an interception from Aiden Lariviere in the opening drive of the second half.

“If we had that (defensive performance) in some prior games this year, things may be different. It’s a seesaw – our defense is coming together but it’s a little late, but at the same time you want your team to be playing its best at the end of the season. Now, we need to play defense like that and get our offense going. You have to take something from a loss, and for us to hold an offense like that to seven points until late, it’s a feather in our cap,” said Johnston head coach Joe Acciardo.

Like Pilgrim, Johnston has been an explosive offensive team to this point this season. However, Acciardo simply felt the Pilgrim defense outplayed the Panther offense in the loss.

“They went man which we don’t see much. They just played better than we did, they were better than we expected. Usually we can run our plays and make it work, but they’ve got a lot of athletes,” said Acciardo. Moving forward, Acciardo hopes that the Panthers will see this game as a confidence booster despite the final score.

“These kids played with a lot of heart. What they can take out of this loss is that they can play four quarters with the top teams,” Acciardo said. “The sky’s the limit, we’ve got athletes. It is just about getting better regardless of what the score is. We just need to keep getting better.”

Pilgrim will now likely enter the playoffs as the second seed behind Narragansett. Halliwell has his sights set on the opening round of the postseason and hopes to get a crack at the cross town rival Toll Gate Titans. “Our defense had a great week of practice this week.

It felt great to (help) our seeding this week and we’re hoping to have a chance to play Toll Gate in the first round,” Halliwell said.