SPORTS

West falls in thriller

Wizards come back to stun Falcons

By RYAN D. MURRAY
Posted 9/13/22

The Wizards outlasted the Cranston West Falcons 30-27 at West Warwick High School on Thursday night in a thrilling Division II football season-opening showdown.

The Falcons led by as many as 17 …

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SPORTS

West falls in thriller

Wizards come back to stun Falcons

Posted

The Wizards outlasted the Cranston West Falcons 30-27 at West Warwick High School on Thursday night in a thrilling Division II football season-opening showdown.

The Falcons led by as many as 17 points, but the Wizards worked their magic and came back to steal the victory.

“Hats off to West Warwick,” Cranston West head coach Tom Milewski said. “They played the whole game. We have to do a better job coaching. We had a lot of errors on the coaching end of it tonight.”

The Falcons flew out of the gate fast, but slowed down after scoring their final touchdown midway through the third quarter.

“We started off like a house of fire, but we just couldn’t put all four quarters together,” Milewski said. “There were a lot of positives for us, but the negative is we couldn’t finish.”

“When we needed plays down the stretch, at the end of the game, West Warwick got stronger,” Milewski added. “And they took over the game midway through the third quarter into the fourth quarter, and we just couldn’t finish. And we have to finish. Going through the season, we have to be able to finish a game.”

With 4:50 remaining in the first quarter, Cranston West running back Marcus Chung scored the first points of the contest, rushing in a TD from 31 yards out. Jack Majcher, the kicker, added the extra point after that and upped the Falcons lead to 7-0.

West Warwick got within 7-3 when kicker Kieton Nunes made a field goal from 20 yards out.

Fourteen seconds into the second frame, Chung added his second rushing TD, this time from four yards out, and then with 1:29 left in the half, quarterback Kelan Cornell connected on a 35-yard passing TD to Hudson Carvalho and that put the Falcons up 20-3.

“Hudson had a couple of nice big catches for us and had a couple big returns in the kick return game,” Milewski said.

Thirty seconds after that, Wizards quarterback Brady Miale heaved a 28-yard bomb to Karl Swanson, who brought the ball to the 2-yard line.

Then, DionDre Chase rushed into pay dirt with 38.7 seconds remaining in the first half and pulled West Warwick within 20-10.

Five minutes into the third frame, Cranston West upped its advantage to 27-10 when Cornell, a sophomore, rushed a keeper two yards up the gut and in for a TD.

“He played OK,” Milewski said. “He’s got some work to do, though. He’s got to get a little bit more stuff done on the practice field with his reads and what not. But he’ll be okay. He’s a gamer. This is really only his first full varsity start. He played last week and he played a little bit on Thanksgiving. So, this was his first game from start to finish, four quarters at the varsity level. So, a lot of pressure on him and we’ve got to help him. Some of our surrounding cast has to step up and help him and we have to do a little better job coaching him, which we will.”

But 32 seconds later, Chase returned the ensuing kickoff 75 yards to the promised land and pulled the Wizards within 27-17.

Next, West Warwick cut the deficit to 27-24, with 8:16 remaining in the fourth frame, after Shaun Shultz returned a pick-six 70 yards.

Then, with 4:01 left, the Wizards grabbed a 30-27 lead when Shultz rushed into the end zone from three yards out, following a 48-yard rush by Chase, and a six-yard run from James Branch IV.

The Cranston West offense would go three-and out on its final two possessions of the game.

“We had some cramping issues and they (West Warwick) just kept playing, kept playing, and kept playing,” Milewski said. “So, hats off to the Wizards. We have to get back to work on Monday and start working for our next game, next week.”

The Falcons fall to 0-1 on the season with the defeat and play next on Saturday at 12  p.m. at Burrillville (0-1).

Falcons, West, football

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