On Sunday, the Johnston Panthers 12U team traveled to Seekonk, Mass., to play the Jr. Warriors and came home with a 42-6 victory.
On a cool day, the unbeaten Panthers started the game on defense, where the first four tackles were made by Nic Comella. On the Panthers’ first offensive play, quarterback Zack Lavergne pitched the ball to Tom Comella, who ran for a 45-yard touchdown. Joey Patterson was successful in kicking the extra point and the Panthers were quickly ahead 8-0.
The defense stepped right up again with tackles by Tim Isom, Lavergne, Nic Comella, Arion Kennedy and Tom Columbo. They forced the Warriors to a four-and-out again. On the first play of the next offensive series, Nic Comella ran for a 45-yard touchdown but the extra point was unsuccessful, making it 14-0.
Anthony Marsella stopped the Warriors on the kickoff. The defensive line of Sebastian Brooks, Jacob Mainey, Joey Charette, Nick Guenette and Aiden Scott stepped up, and Scott recovered a fumble by the Warriors. James Isme ran for 10 yards and then quarterback Lavergne threw a 45-yard pass to Isom for the Panthers’ next score. The extra point was successful with a run by Isme, upping the lead to 21-0. On the next defensive play, Anthony Gawlik got his first interception and ran the ball back for a 46-yard touchdown. Lavergne ran the ball in for the extra point and Johnston carried a 28-0 lead into halftime.
The second half was a continuation of the first, with the Panther defense dominating again. Scott forced a fumble and Isme picked it up and ran for a 55-yard touchdown. The extra point from Patterson was good, and the lead for the Panthers was increased to 36-0. Right before the game ended Tom Comella, now playing quarterback, ran for a 60-yard touchdown.
“Everyone contributed to this win,” said head coach Tom Comella.
Next week the Panthers will be the home team, hosting the Darlington Braves, but the game will be at Smithfield High school since the field at Johnston High is not yet ready.
Panthers 10U improve to 4-0
The undefeated 10U team traveled to Seekonk this past Sunday and kept its momentum rolling with a 26-0 victory. On the first play from scrimmage Derek Salvatore completed a long pass to Michael Laflamme, which was followed up by a couple of good runs by Isaiah DeBritto. However, Seekonk managed to stop the Panthers on downs, which brought the defense on the field.
The defense was led by Carlos Alfaia, Dylan Silva, Cory Collins, Andrew Picard, Michael Salzillo, Matthias Barros, Adrian Orellana, Austin Jenks, Joe Forte, Eric Luna, Nick Perron, Nick Baccala, Dante Iafrate, and Hudson Carvalho. After Seekonk turned the ball over on downs, the ball ended up in the Panthers hands, and Dimetri Iafrate found his way into the end zone from 50 yards out. On a tough extra point conversion by Debritto, the Panthers took a 7-0 lead.
On the ensuing kick off, Dante Iafrate ran down for the Panthers and recovered the onside kick. On the next play, DeBritto ran 25 yards to put the Panthers deep in Seekonk territory. The Panthers’ second touchdown came on a 12-yard run by Dimetri Iafrate and once again Debritto managed to get into the end zone on the extra point to give the Panthers a 14-0 lead.
The second quarter wasn’t much different for the Panthers as their defense proved to be tough once again on tackles by Rafael Ayriyan, Jake Trahan, Devan Kent, Alex Morin and Armand DeCosta. The final touchdown of the half came from 50 yards out on a run by Dimetri Iafrate to give the Panthers a 20-0 halftime lead. The offense was led by some great blocking by Dario Branch, Jesse Pascetta, Michael Franco, Noah Lavergne, Alex Morin, Michael Vita, Jayden Breault, Jayden McKenna and Kyle Iannucillo.
In the second half the Panthers had some tough runs by Barros, Carvalho, Salzillo and Dimetri Iafrate, who capped of the scoring with a 25-yard touchdown run to give the Panthers a 26-0 lead. On the last defensive possession Kyle D’Alessandro got the Panthers their first interception of the season.
The Panthers this week take on the Darlington Braves at Smithfield High School at 11 a.m.
Johnston 11U falls to Jets
The 11U Panthers traveled to Woonsocket and took on the North Providence Jets Sunday, falling short in an 18-0 loss. After a great week of practice and receiving the opening kickoff, the Panthers offensive running game started off strong but just couldn’t convert on third downs when needed, and came up short when an opportunity presented itself to take an early lead against the Jets.
The Jets struck first against the tough Panther defense with a touchdown. The physical Panther defense held the Jets from converting the extra point. The Panther defense held strong through the second quarter, stopping several Jet drives and keeping the Panthers in the game. Johnston trailed 6-0 at halftime.
The Jets came out strong in the second half, shutting down the Panther offense after a strong 40-yard drive by the Panthers. The Panther offense and defense continued to fight hard with some solid offensive drives and great defensive stops, never letting the Jets rest easy, but the Jets scored two more unanswered touchdowns to secure an 18-0 win. The Panthers will look to regroup this week and will host Darlington at Smithfield High School.
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