Rams pull away, send West to 0-2 start in D-I

Matt Metcalf
Posted 10/2/14

In search of its first Division I win of the season, the Cranston West football team mustered just 43 rushing yards and couldn’t slow down La Salle en route to a 33-16 loss to the Rams on Friday …

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Rams pull away, send West to 0-2 start in D-I

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In search of its first Division I win of the season, the Cranston West football team mustered just 43 rushing yards and couldn’t slow down La Salle en route to a 33-16 loss to the Rams on Friday night.

From start to finish, the Falcons’ offensive line struggled to block for quarterback Steve Furtado and running back Raekwon Kisilywicz, resulting in a virtually non-existent running game.

Defensively, West came out strong, stifling Rams’ quarterback Jace Pena early on. However, the Falcons’ defense failed to minimize big plays after the first quarter. As a result, Pena finished with 161 yards through the air with a touchdown, while La Salle junior running back Kyron Lopes rushed nine times for 124 yards and three touchdowns, including 49 and 51-yard touchdown runs. After surrendering 378 yards the previous week to Cumberland, the Falcons’ defense gave up 371 to La Salle.

“I think our kids played better than they did last week, defensively, because I thought that this was a better football team,” West head coach Steve Stoehr said. “I thought we actually covered the pass a little bit better than we did against Cumberland. They (La Salle) have some athletes and we have to match up to them.”

West held its own for much of the first half, limiting La Salle’s high-powered offense to minimal yardage. It wasn’t until midway through the second quarter that the Rams were able to get on the board. Lopes capped off a long La Salle drive with a tough 3-yard run into the end zone, giving the Rams a 7-0 lead.

After the Falcons were forced to punt with just over a minute left in the first half, La Salle moved the ball up the field quickly. Pena found Elijiah McLean for a 19-yard gain and James Picerelli for an 11-yard gain, taking the Rams down to the Falcons’ 23-yard line. On the next play, Pena once again completed a pass, this time to C.J. Waite for a 23-yard touchdown with just nine seconds left. La Salle’s extra point missed wide, but the touchdown still put West in a 13-0 hole at the half.

It didn’t take long for the Rams to increase their lead in the second half. Just over a minute into the third quarter, Lopes broke free for a 51-yard touchdown run, his second of the game, giving La Salle a 20-0 cushion.

With all the momentum in La Salle’s favor, however, West’s John Petrocelli came up with a big play on defense. With just under a minute remaining in the third quarter, Petrocelli intercepted a Pena pass, taking the ball into Rams’ territory.

“I thought he should have scored on it, he kind of just ran into the guy,” Stoehr said jokingly. “But it was an excellent play and a nice interception. Johnny had a good game at the beginning too. He made a lot of good reads, he just has to keep his head up and make some more tackles.”

On the Falcons’ second play from scrimmage after the interception, Furtado found Kisilywicz on a short screen pass, and Kisilywicz ran the ball into the end zone for a 21-yard touchdown. After Furtado found Kisilywicz again on the two-point conversion, West cut its deficit to 20-8.

In a two-possession game, though, the Falcons couldn’t come up with the stop that they needed on the next possession. For a third time, Lopes avoided tackles and escaped for a 49-yard touchdown in the first minute of the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach at 26-8.

The Rams added some insurance when linebacker Tim Faria intercepted a Furtado pass around midfield and followed blockers into the end zone.

Furtado answered on a 6-yard run near the seven-minute mark of the fourth quarter, cutting the Falcons’ deficit to 33-16 after a Kisilywicz rush for a two-point conversion, but it proved to be too late. Furtado put together a solid game through the air in the loss, totaling 124 yards and a touchdown.

The Falcons, now 0-2, will face an uphill climb from here on out. With match-ups against Hendricken, Cranston East, Portsmouth, and Barrington still to be played, West will look to string together some wins and fight its way into the playoff picture.

Next up for the Falcons will be intra-city rival Cranston East on Friday at 7 p.m. at Cranston Stadium.

“We need to worry about ourselves right now and get better,” Stoehr said. “We need to find something offensively that can work for us.”

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