By ALEX SPONSELLER The Cranston West football team dropped its third straight decision last Friday when visiting Cumberland rolled to a 33-6 win.

Steve Girouard continued to add to his breakout season with a rushing touchdown to get the Falcons on the board early. West held the score to 13-6 until late in the third quarter, but the Clippers rushing attack would catch fire and put up 20 more points late to run away with the win.

The Falcons have faced arguably the toughest four-week schedule in the state in October, taking on Burrillville, Central, La Salle and Cumberland. Despite the tough stretch, head coach Tom Milewski has seen some progress made.

“We learned that we’ve got some holes to fill. Some of our younger guys, our sophomores and juniors, have stepped up and emerged a little bit in their play. They’ve stepped in to help the seniors. It was a tough stretch but the kids are still working. We’re hoping to get some positive momentum in our last couple games,” said Milewski.

The Clippers were led by running backs Cam Pedro and Joel Baker, who each ran for over 100 yards in the win. Milewski felt that the duo wore down the West defense in the second half.

“Cumberland has a couple of good running backs. It was 13-6 in the third quarter, we are still struggling to find that offensive momentum and our defense got backed up a little bit. They ran hard, they’ve got two running backs that run hard. We got a little tired, a little winded in the fourth quarter and they began to run through our tackles and build momentum of their own. It was not the best ending to a game for us,” said Milewski.

The Falcons will head to East Providence on Friday to compete in their final regular season matchup. Although West has struggled for much of this fall season, Milewski and company are expecting big things moving forward and hope to make the most of the final few games this year.

“I know it’s tough right now, but I think going forward even into next season, it will be good for us. It will give us something to look forward to, it will give us a few things to change up in order to get back to being one of those powerhouse programs that we were just a few years back,” said Milewski. “We’ve had some guys step up. Steve Girouard has been a bright spot on both sides of the ball for us, Marcus Chung has been stepping up and has shown us what he can do against those upper level teams.”

As for this week’s matchup, Milewski expects another tough battle against a Townies team that has had a similar season to this point.

“We’re mirror teams. We’re struggling a little bit against those bigger teams. They’re a straight-at-you team which will be another good test for us. We’ve played a few of those teams the past couple weeks so it will be good to see how we do when someone runs right at us,” said Milewski. “They play solid defense, too. They’ve been unfortunate with some turnovers that have led to scores - the final scores don’t indicate how well they’ve been playing. They’re a solid football team and I expect us to have a battle on our hands come Friday night.”