North Providence has been waiting for two decades but it has finally happened, they Cougars have won the RIIL Division 4 Football State Championship. It is program many years in the making and they have finally finished the job. Last year North Providence fell short to a stacked Mt. Pleasant led by SportsCenter star Randolph Zleh. The Cougars though had many players returning, including their whole offensive line lead by captains Anthony Izzi, Alex Musard, and Sebastian Dziadkiewicz. But, the Cougars real strength was their running game led by captain Josh Breggia, Dave Santanelli and of course the speedy All-State running back Bevin Ingram. Ingram broke records this year like it was his job and played a huge part in the Cougars success all season.
Coming into the final game of the season, the Cougars were heavily-favored due to the fact that they beat their opponent, the Exter-West Greenwich Knights, already during the season which captured the division title. They beat them soundly 26-7 even though they made many mistakes early. The Cougars rushing attack was superb through rushing for almost 500 yards as a team, an improbable number.
The Cougars won the coin toss and deferred but the Knights still elected to kick, giving the Cougars possession. The Cougars went right to that running game which is so effective and ran it down the EWG defense’s throat. David Santanelli was running like a real work horse out there and helped bring it down to the 6-yard line were Ingram ran it in for the score. Dziadkiewicz converted the PAT and the score was 7-0. EWG finally had a chance to redeem themselves after the Cougars ran out to a quick lead. They began to march down the field with many short 4 and 5-yard runs. They picked up 3 first downs but were then finally stopped on 4th down by the stout Cougar D.
Santanelli again ran through and over the Knights and gained many tough yards converting in many first downs. They marched down the field once again with their running and made it to the Knights 15 yard line. The Cougars then handed it off to Ingram and Ingram quickly saw a lane closed and reversed field. Ingram used his speed to reverse field and get into the end zone. Dziadkiewicz added the PAT again, 14-0 Cougars.
It was sort of déjà vu for the Knights and they knew they had to score to keep it close. But, that was not the case at all. The Knights were stopped by the Cougar defense again and were forced to punt after a 3 and out.
North Providence now had a chance to make this game out of reach. They again went to work on the ground using Breggia, Ingram, and of course Santanelli. First down after first down it was like for the Cougars and Breggia eventually punched it in from 10 yards out. The PAT failed and it was 20-0 Cougars and getting out of hand.
EWG was in a very big hole and needed to play as hard as they possibly could to get back into this game. But, they shot themselves in the foot once more with many mistakes leading to a 3 and out once more.
The Cougars on their first play on the series though were stopped for a loss of 3. But, it did not matter. Ingram ran towards the right sideline, made one defender eat dirt, and then ran 48 yards for the score. The PAT failed and it was 26-0 at the end of the half.
The Cougars got the ball back again due to the coin toss gaffe committed by EWG and went to work. NP got short field due to a failed onside kick by the Knights. After a quick first down, senior Brandon Nunez took it up the left sideline for a touchdown. Nunez was out for 4 weeks with a knee injury prior to the game and that score was a big one for him. The PAT failed once again, 32-0 North Providence.
EWG regained possession but were once again stopped by the Cougar defense. The Cougars wanted to finish this game off. The Cougars had big runs from quarterback Ian Brown and Ingram and it set them up nicely. Nunez then got the ball again and ran for a 21-yard scamper.
EWG regained possession and put together a very nice drive on the ground. First down after first down then it was finished off by a nice QB run, but the game was still very out of reach, 38-6. Williams answered back quickly with even more great rushing. Brown then took an option run and got in on the touchdown fun with a 25-yard run. The score was 46-6. EWG scored after that making it 46-12 but it was already out of reach.
The Cougar players gave Williams a traditional Gatorade shower. As the game clock hit 0, the crowd went wild and the Cougars celebrated with each other and their coaches. They knew that they were only the 2nd team to do it in a blue and gold uniform, and nobody can take that away from them. They did it in spectacular fashion also by letting up the least amount of points and scoring the most amount of points in the whole entire state of Rhode Island. Also, we cannot forget that this is the first undefeated season in school history. North Providence can rejoice in knowing that the Cougars are the 2013 Rhode Island Interscholastic League Division 4 Football State Champions.
By: Nathan Moreira
