Panthers celebrate a house-warming party

Finally back home, Johnston knocks off defending champ West Warwick

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After spending the month of September on the road, the Johnston High School football team opened its brand new athletic complex Friday night.

The Panthers made it worth the wait.

Winless coming in, Johnston hit its stride and delivered an exciting 20-14 victory over defending Division II Super Bowl champion West Warwick, who had been unbeaten.

Playing in front of a packed house, the Panthers played their best game of the year in what amounted to a must-win. The team had lost its first two league games to Tolman and North Kingstown. Unlike those two games, there was no second half collapse Friday, as the Johnston defense came up with some big plays throughout the contest and managed to contain Wizard quarterback Dave Lamountain. The Johnston offense controlled the ball for most of the first and fourth quarters, keeping the dangerous Wizards off the field.

“We played with a lot of heart tonight and some good ball control,” said an emotional Johnston head coach Joe Acciardo after the game. “I am proud of the guys. It was a lot of pressure on us because we did not want to open up the new field with a loss. We did everything to contain Lamountain. He is unbelievable and gives defenses fits because he can throw the ball and is so elusive.”

Panther running back Curtis Mathieu had the best game of his career, rushing for 120 yards and two touchdowns, while also contributing on defense.

“They were keying on Marc Conte a lot and it opened it up for Curtis and he answered the call,” Acciardo said. “Conte and Mathieu are both great athletes. They both run hard and are like beasts in there. When you have a tag team like that, you can win games like this.”

Johnston controlled the ball for the first 7:48 of the opening quarter, and capped its drive with Mike Caparco's 1-yard quarterback sneak for the first touchdown scored on the new field.

The Wizards would answer with an 83-yard scoring drive midway through the second quarter. A scrambling Lamountain found Andrew In on fourth-and-14 for a 30-yard touchdown and his extra point gave the visitors a 7-6 lead.

With 22 seconds left in the first half, West Warwick was knocking on the Panthers’ door at their 4-yard line, but thanks to good pressure by Konstantinos Kirios on Lamountain, Johnston was able to shut the door and force a turnover on downs to keep it a one-point game at halftime.

Just three minutes into the third quarter, the Wizards extended their lead to 14-6 thanks to a 45-yard touchdown run and point after by Lamountain.

The Wizards then surprised Johnston with a successful onside kick, which gave them the ball at the home team's 41-yard line. But the Panther defense came up with its biggest play yet when Larry Dureault intercepted a Lamountain pass at the Johnston 10-yard line.

The Wizards had possessed the ball for the first six minutes and 10 seconds of the third quarter, continuing a trend that has seen Johnston struggle in the third quarter in each of the last two weeks. This time, though, Johnston turned it around. Shortly after the interception, Mathieu broke several tackles in the secondary and raced 65 yards for a touchdown. Dureault hauled in a halfback pass from Conte for the two-point conversion, knotting the game at 14-14 late in the third quarter.

Johnston's offense would go on to control the ball for eight minutes and 30 seconds of the fourth quarter, as Mathieu and Conte ran hard for first downs, eating up the game clock in the process. Mathieu's 12-yard touchdown run gave the Panthers the lead for good at 20-14 with 4:32 left in the fourth.

“Conte and Mathieu both run hard and you can't give those guys opportunities to get into our secondary,” said West Warwick head coach Shane Lagor. “Johnston has some big players and we tried to square up chest to chest with them, but we needed to get a little bit wider with them. When the ball gets pounded at you over and over again, it gets tiring and it was demoralizing when we could not make the stops.”

The Johnston defense stepped up once again during the final minutes of the game, highlighted by a big sack from co-captain Devin Soares and a Dureault pass deflection that put the Wizards in third-and-22 inside their own 20-yard line. A personal foul call on the Panther defense gave new life to the Wizard drive, but Kenny Kue put an end to the comeback hopes as he picked off a desperation pass with 1:14 left in the game.

That clinched a victory that will take a special place in the record books.

“Our line blocked well, our backs ran hard, and our defense played hard,” Mathieu said. “It's a historic win for us. We came together and executed.”

Johnston and West Warwick had not faced each other since 1994, but the game was a good first step in the renewal of an old rivalry.

“Going back to the 70's and 80's, Johnston and West Warwick was always a physical battle," Lagor said. “They had the upper hand tonight. I told my guys that this was a must-win for Johnston and they gave us all they had.”

With a loss, Johnston would have dropped to 0-3 and likely would have needed to win out just to have a shot at a postseason bid. At 1-2, it’s still an uphill battle, but it’s doable.

“We finally came together as a team tonight,” Conte said. “We finally practiced well and it showed.”

The Panthers will hit the road for a 1 p.m. game on Saturday at Moses Brown. The Quakers defeated Tolman last week 27-13 and are 2-1 in league play. North Kingstown is the only undefeated team left in Division II-B with a 3-0 record. After Saturday, Johnston will have played the top four teams in D-II-B.

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