The Cranston East football team is looking to bounce back after a tough 2022 in which it won one game and will be relying on a crop of young players to make an impact.

Although the record was not pretty on paper, last year’s group had chances to beat DII powers such as Barrington and Woonsocket, holding leads against each late in their respective matchups, while also beating East Greenwich in a non-league game.

The Bolts return a handful of starters from last year’s team on both sides of the ball, and there will be perhaps none more important than senior running back/linebacker A’Driahn Foreman, who had a breakout campaign last fall as a junior.

“We’re definitely looking for A’Driahn to lead us this year. He runs the ball hard, he plays great defense, we’re looking for him to be a leader both on and off the field for us this year,” said East head coach Isaiah McDaniel.

As for the ever-important quarterback position, the Bolts have not landed on their starter yet and plan to watch the competition unfold the rest of the week including this Friday’s injury fund exhibition. Senior Jayden Chagnon has received the majority of the first-team reps during camp.

Other players that project as starters for the East offense include Michael Terry, Angel Figueroa and DaSean Brown.

The East defense will also return much of its lineup from last season. McDaniel expects the front seven to be bigger and more physical than last year’s group, which was one of the youngest in the division.

“It’s been a while since we’ve had some big bodies up front and have had some bigger linebackers. We were a little small there last year. We’re looking for that to be one of the strengths of our team,” said McDaniel.

Once again, Division II will be a dogfight this fall and East opens the season with two tough matchups against Mt. Pleasant in the opener then Central the following week. McDaniel and company are not looking ahead, though, and expect to compete regardless of the opponent.

“You always feel that you have what you need for kids to make an impact. We’re just taking it day by day, we’re going to give our best effort every time we step on the field and let the chips fall where they may,” McDaniel said. “The first couple weeks are the most important of the season, it sets the tone and gets your mindset right. We need to come to practice every day and focus on the things that we need to do as individuals to make the team better. We just need to play together as one unit, as one group.”