Tight Competition

Broncos surprise Panthers in Injury Fund football action

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The calendar on the wall might read early September but you would think that it was mid-November the way the Johnston Panthers and Burrillville Broncos played their two-quarter Injury Fund football game last Friday night at North Providence High School. The Division IV Broncos came away with a 28-22 upset win over the Division II Panthers in what was a hard- hitting and entertaining game that went down to the final seconds.

“Burrillville played well," Johnston head coach Joe Acciardo said after the game. “They are big, tough, and fast and did everything well and I am not going to take anything away from them. Their coaching staff did a really good job and just beat us.”

This is Johnston's first year in Division II-B as the Panthers move over from II-A, where they have spent the last four seasons. They have had an impressive regular season record in II-A since moving up from Division III. In 2010, the Panthers were co-division champions with a 5-2 record. In 2012, they were division champions at 7-0 and last year they were co-division champions at 6-1. They did not qualify for the post season in 2011 despite a 4-3 mark.

Last Friday's game and season got off to a disastrous start for the Panthers when Burrillville's Zackary Tayes ran back the opening kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown.

It only took Johnston one minute and 25 seconds to respond when co-captain Marc Conte ran untouched up the middle for a 60-yard score to cut the lead to one.

The Broncos extended their lead to 14-6 late in the first quarter. Their massive quarterback, Isaiah DeSilva dove into the end zone from 2 yards out for the score. The drive was aided by a Johnston personal foul penalty.

On the Panthers’ next possession, Conte fumbled and the Broncos Jake Stankoski recovered the ball in Panther territory. After another Johnston personal foul penalty, DeSilva hit Tayes with a 20-yard touchdown pass with 58 seconds left in the opening quarter, giving them a 20-6 lead.

Johnston quarterback Mike Caparco put together a good drive when the Panthers got the ball back. Completions to Aaron Perfetto, Larry Dureault and Conte put the Panthers at the Broncos 1-yard line as time expired in the first quarter. Caparco called his own number on the first play of the second quarter and after a successful two-point conversion JHS trailed by only six.

On the next possession, Burrillville would have scored again if Tyler Nasisi had not broken up DeSilva's pass in the end zone, which forced a turnover on downs and gave the Panthers the ball at their own 15-yard line. From there, Conte grinded out some tough yardage and he eventually got loose for a 40-yard touchdown that tied the game at 20. Curtis Mathieu broke the tie with the two-point conversion, giving JHS its first lead of the game, 22-20 with only minutes remaining in the 24-minute game.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, Burrillville wasn’t out of time yet. DeSilva's long pass to Riley Tupper set up first-and-goal at the Johnston 2-yard line, where the Burrillville signal caller used his height to his advantage as he dove over the JHS defense with 23 seconds on the clock for the touchdown and a 28-22 lead. Tupper intercepted Caparco to end the game.

“We made mistakes and hopefully we can learn from them,” Acciardo said. “We had some looseness towards the end of summer practice. We somehow got away from the rigidness of practice – we got a little bit undisciplined and we played undisciplined tonight. We warned our players if you practice poorly, you will play poorly and it came to fruition but I'm glad this happened now so we can somehow benefit from this game.”

Last week's game marked the return of long time assistant coach Matt Mancuso who spent the past two seasons as the Toll Gate head football coach.

“I'm glad to be back,” he said. “I love it here in Johnston.”

The Panthers’ schedule this year is not an easy one. They will play three defending Super Bowl champions, a rare feat. Johnston will play four-time Division I champion Bishop Hendricken next week in a non-league game, Division II champ West Warwick on Oct. 3, and Division III champion Mt. Pleasant, who moved up a division this year and is now in Johnston’s league.

Johnston has not played Bishop Hendricken since 1986. The Panthers defeated the Hawks 7-0 that year as well as the previous season by the same score.

“It will be a true sign of what our character is as we rebound,” Acciardo said. “We are going to have to recover and do the right thing – hopefully we have good practices.”

Friday’s 7 p.m. game with Hendricken was shifted to Warwick because the Panthers’ new field is not ready to open. The home opener is slated for October 3, when Johnston will renew an old rivalry with West Warwick, a team it has not played since 1994.

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