By ALEX SPONSELLER The Toll Gate football team fell to visiting Chariho 48-8 in the regular season finale on Saturday morning at home.

Although the Titans scored early and held the score to 8-8 after a quarter of play, the Chargers would surge for 14 points in the second to take the lead into the halftime break. Chariho would go on to get multiple touchdowns in the third and fourth quarters to run away with the win.

In a rainy morning matchup, the Titans had trouble moving the ball in the second half.

“It was messy, so the passing game shuts down. We put that in our gameplan but then had to decide to go to the ground. We had a great first drive, chewed up the clock and had the ball for most of the first quarter. Then, missed tackles, injuries happened,” said Toll Gate head coach Jim Stringfellow.

The Titans dropped to 1-6 on the season and will be taking on No. 2 Pilgrim in the first round of the Division III playoffs this Friday night.

Although the Titans will be entering the matchup as the underdogs, Stringfellow hopes his players rise to the occasion against their rivals.

“It’s very important. It’s a cross-town rivalry, if we didn’t have COVID this would have been the second time playing them. With rivalries like this, records mean nothing. We’ve got to regroup and figure out what’s going on. We need to come back Monday, put a game plan in place and go at it,” said Stringfellow.

When assessing the high-flying Patriots, Stringfellow expects a tough matchup on each side of the ball.

“They’re a very good team. They have a lot of athletes and their defense is very good. We’re going to have to watch a lot of film and figure something out,” said Stringfellow. “It’s a chess match. You have to find your best matchups and make them do what you want while they’re trying to make you do what they want. Hopefully it’s a good game, it’s a cross-town rivalry so records go out the window.”