By ALEX SPONSELLER The Bishop Hendricken golf team held off East Greenwich to win its sixth state championship last week at Cranston Country Club.

The Hawks trailed the Avengers by one stroke after the first round, but caught fire in the second and finished with a score of 617 while EG finished second with 623.

Ricky Angeli led the Hawks with a score of 149 () over the two days which was good for a fourth-place finish individually. Hendricken sophomore Brady Williams finished tied seventh for the Hawks while Pilgrim’s Josh Speel rounded out the top-10 with a score of 155. Hendricken’s Andrew Chadwick placed 17th overall while Toll Gate’s Ryan Dacey finished 21st.

“We knew all year long that we had some of the best depth of any team in the state. For a good portion of the season, we didn’t play to the best of our ability, and you never really know going into that event. You never know what you’re going to get. It helped Day 1 to have Ricky go out there and set the pace, Harry Grimes’ score was not reflective of how well he played, he played tremendously good golf. Brady Williams was steady both days, so was Andrew Chadwick. It was that depth that put us over the top,” said Hendricken coach Rick Angeli.

Ricky Angeli emerged as one of the top players in the state as a sophomore as he took over the top spot for former Hawk Colin Sutyla, who graduated the previous season and was one of the state’s best high school players ever.

After losing last season to the pandemic, Ricky Angeli picked up right where he left off.

“Ricky kind of knew since (Sutyla’s graduation) that he would have to come out and lead us,” said Rick Angeli, who also made sure his club remembered coming up one shot short against Wheeler in the 2019 state tournament. “Also, two years ago, we lost by just one shot to Wheeler. Since then we have talked about the importance of one shot and our guys really bought into that. I know that Ricky and Harry were completely focused and dedicated to giving themselves an opportunity to win a state championship. It was just a really strong performance from all of our guys.”

Rick Angeli added: “We knew that we would be in the mix and these guys knew that they had the team to do it. They worked really hard, even in the non-practice hours, and were dedicated to doing what they needed to do to get better. Over the last three weeks, things really came together collectively. The guys really came together as a group and started pulling for one another and focused on team success.”

Ricky Angeli and Grimes will be graduating this spring, so Hendricken will be looking for new faces to step up. Williams is set to return to a big role, but the scorecard will be up in the air behind him.

“We have three kids returning next year that played at the state championship so it’s going to be about building around them,” said Rick Angeli. “We have a few freshmen that will step in. You never know what is going to show up on your doorstep, but we expect to have four guys and be right in it.”