The Cranston East football team has been close to a victory against Bishop Hendricken over the last few years, but never as close as Friday night.

In the most excruciating of fashions, the ’Bolts came up 1 yard short of knocking off the undefeated, four-time defending champs.

Hendricken escaped Cranston Stadium Friday night with a dramatic 26-25 victory. Senior safety Lee Moses tackled East star Marquem Monroe 1 yard short of a game-winning touchdown on a botched field goal attempt as the clock expired to preserve the win for the Hawks.

To say the least, the loss was a tough pill to swallow, but it did demonstrate just how good East can be when it’s on its game.

“I certainly was proud,” said East head coach Tom Centore. “I thought we played really well. We did some good things defensively. They played hard. That’s a very explosive team.”

For Hendricken, its celebration of a dramatic win was tempered by some of the miscues it made during the course of the game. It committed 13 penalties for 125 yards, a week after racking up a similar amount in a win over Barrington. While the Hawks are 4-0, and are one of only two unbeaten teams left in Division I along with La Salle, head coach Keith Croft was anything but happy with his team’s performance.

“It was terrible,” Croft said. “Cranston East played their absolute heart out tonight. I’m just beyond furious with the amount of penalties we had. I’m embarrassed.”

East fell to 1-2 with the loss. The ’Bolts have now lost two games by a combined five points, and in each of the defeats they scored the same amount of touchdowns as their opponent, only to come up short on conversion kicks and two-point attempts.

The same was true on Friday night, and those shortcomings extended into the final play, which was supposed to be a 21-yard field goal attempt from the right hash.

On the final play of a drive that began on their own 18-yard line, the ’Bolts sent out Logan McConaghy to try the kick with three seconds on the clock. The snap went to Monroe, the holder, and after a brief hesitation he stood up and took off to the left, where there was nothing but green in between him and the end zone.

From the back of the defense, Moses – a standout sprinter in the winter and spring – tracked down Monroe just shy of the goal line and took him to the turf, ending the game.

The play was not designed to be a fake. Earlier in the game, Monroe had dropped a pair of extra-point conversion snaps. McConaghy had also missed an extra point.

“He didn’t think he could get the ball down,” Centore said. “It should be pretty automatic. It was a pretty good snap I thought. I know we’ve struggled, but we’ve kicked them. We have no problem in practice for the most part.”

Monroe had a huge effort in the loss, rushing for two touchdowns and throwing for another on a halfback pass. He had 46 yards rushing, 10 yards passing and 97 yards receiving.

Hendricken quarterback John Toppa added to his All-State-caliber season with 145 yards through the air, including a touchdown, plus 68 yards on the ground and a pair of touchdowns.

The Hawks needed every yard they could get in a game where they trailed by as many as 13 points in the first half.

“I don’t know how many games we can win playing like this,” Croft said.

Hendricken took its first lead of the game with 7:55 to play in the fourth quarter on a Toppa 41-yard touchdown pass to Andrew Hopgood over the middle. The extra point from Ryan Blais made it 26-19.

East immediately had an answer, as John Anderson returned the kickoff 18 yards and Hendricken committed a personal foul, giving the ’Bolts the ball on the Hawks’ 35-yard line. A 21-yard pass to Monroe was initially waved off due to an illegal formation penalty, but the call was overturned, keeping East on the march. Two plays later, Darrio Carter charged into the end zone from 12 yards out.

The extra point, however, sailed wide left, and East still trailed by a point.

The penalty that was changed was the same penalty East was called for earlier in the half that negated a 6-yard touchdown pass from Carter to Monroe. That time, it wasn’t overturned. The ’Bolts ended up not scoring on that drive.

“It’s tough, having that touchdown called back,” Centore said. “It hurt us, because the guy got it wrong unfortunately.”

Up by just a point, the Hawks set out to run down the clock, but after picking up a pair of first downs, Toppa was hit for a loss in the backfield on first down, completed a 6-yard pass on second down and threw incomplete on third down. That forced Hendricken to punt the ball back to East with 2:46 to play.

The ’Bolts began the drive on their own 18-yard line, and systematically moved down the field. They picked up four first downs, including two due to a defensive pass interference call on Hendricken and a late hit on the Hawks.

Carter completed four passes on the drive, the last of which set East up with first-and-10 from Hendricken’s 11-yard line with 1:23 to play. After a 7-yard scamper on first down, Carter spiked the ball on second down and ran for no gain on third down. Centore let the clock tick down to just under four seconds before calling a timeout and sending the field goal unit on.

“(McConaghy) can make that field goal any day,” Centore said.

He never got the chance, as Monroe came up a yard short of his third rushing touchdown of the game.

“Fortunately, Lee made the tackle and that was it,” Croft said.

Long before the late fireworks, East had built an early lead. The ’Bolts took a 7-0 lead on a 1-yard fourth down plunge by Monroe early in the second quarter. The ’Bolts made it 13-0 later on in the quarter when Monroe took a toss to the left side, stopped in his tracks and fired a strike to Justin Silva for a 10-yard touchdown.

Hendricken cut into the lead when Gary Gibbs scored on an 18-yard burst through the middle with 4:27 to play in the half, but East made it 19-6 right afterwards on another 1-yard Monroe touchdown.

Just before the half, the Hawks struck on 3-yard Toppa run with 16 seconds to go. That made it 19-13 at the break.

East recovered an onside kick to start the second half but could do nothing on the drive. Once the Hawks got the ball, they marched down the field on nine plays, and Toppa made it hurt with a 23-yard touchdown run to tie the game.

On the ’Bolts’ next drive, they reached the 6-yard line before the illegal formation penalty negated the touchdown.

Then, the Hawks took the lead early in the fourth quarter before East’s comeback attempt fell just short.

As far as miscues go, Hendricken also lost two fumbles.

“Nothing has worked,” Croft said. “They are going to get it this week in practice. I can’t tell you how furious I am.”

The Hawks will try to stay undefeated this week when they travel to D-I newcomer Cumberland on Friday for a 7 p.m. game. The Clippers are 2-2 and are coming off of 35-30 loss to Portsmouth.

East will play at undefeated La Salle Friday, and is in a tough spot. It needs an upset win over one of the top teams in order to get back into the playoff mix, and La Salle certainly qualifies as a top team.

But the ’Bolts will have to regroup after one of their toughest losses in their five-year tenure in Division I.

“You don’t know,” Centore said. “Going into next week, especially going against La Salle, it’s a risky proposition which direction they’re going to go.”