PAWTUCKET – The Mt. Hope High School football team scored touchdowns on all five of its first-half possessions and its defense held Tolman to 45 yards from scrimmage when it blasted the Tigers 39-0 Friday night at Pariseau Field.

“We came out strong. We came out fired up,” said Mt. Hope’s James Olson. “We executed. That’s what we’ve been preaching all week, all year.

“We’ve got to beat the teams we’re expected to beat. We’ve got to beat every team really. We’ve got a lot to play for.”

The win left the Huskies with a 6-1 final record in Division Two-A and at least a share of the league title, while Tolman ended at 2-5. Mt. Hope locked up second place in the division, a home playoff game this Friday night, Nov. 13, and could possibly finish in first place based on the outcome of the Woonsocket-Westerly game Saturday afternoon.

“The boys played well,” said Mt. Hope coach Ron Silva. “We set out to do what we did. Guys are working hard. They’re running hard, blocking hard and playing good defense.”

The win came with a cost when junior running back Chris Raiola didn’t get up after finishing a 19-yard run late in the first quarter. He was helped off the field and did not put any weight on his right leg. An ambulance took him to Pawtucket Memorial Hospital where the early word was a possible high ankle sprain. He’s expected to be out two to three weeks.

“He’s huge for us,” Silva said. “What we’re going to do is find another person to go to our slot back next week. He’s our return guy too but we have personnel we’ll be able to replace him with. We’ll adapt and move forward.”

The Huskies certainly moved forward on offense Friday night. After holding Tolman to three-and-out in the game-opening offensive series, Mt. Hope took over at its own 42-yard line.

Raiola went wide left on the first play and gained 20 yards. Aaron Booth ran for five yards and Olson gained 20 yards on back-to-back carries. A five-yard Tolman penalty was followed by a three-yard Raiola run then a five-yard touchdown run by Olson. Joe San Martin booted the first of his three conversion kicks to give the Huskies a 7-0 lead.

Tolman again was forced to punt and the Huskies picked up where they left off. Olson capped a six-play, 88-yard drive with a 39-yard touchdown run with 15 seconds left in the first quarter. The run put Olson 14 yards over the 100-yard mark.

“There were huge holes tonight,” Olson said. “The offensive line was great again. I think Tolman was trying to protect the edges with Aaron so it opens the middle up for me all day.”

San Martin’s ensuing kickoff appeared heading out of bounds but stopped before doing so. The Tolman deep man walked away assuming the ball would go out of play. But Mt. Hope’s Ryan Kuehl swooped in and pounced on the ball to give the Huskies possession on the Tolman 17-yard line.

Booth gained a yard on the first play then shed a pair of tacklers and went the 16-yard distance to pay dirt the next play and the Huskies had a 20-0 lead one play into the second quarter.

Tolman started its next drive at its own 35 but finished it at its 31 and had to punt.

The Huskies took over at their 45 and runs by Booth and Olson brought them to the Tolman 23. On first down quarterback Tyler Carreiro dropped back and tossed a pass to Robert Pompey in the back of the end zone. Pompey maneuvered inside the defensive back, jumped and caught the ball for a 23-yard score and a 27-0 lead with four minutes left in the half.

Mt. Hope’s San Martin intercepted a pass the next Tolman series after a teammate deflected the ball into his arms. San Martin returned it to the Tolman 24. A holding penalty pushed it back 10 yards but an 18-yard run by Booth followed by a 17-yard burst by Olson put the ball at the one-yard line.

The Huskies were hit with consecutive penalties which landed the ball back at the 16. Mt. Hope called a timeout with nine seconds left. When play resumed Booth took a pitch from Carreiro, moved right, stopped and tossed the ball to a leaping Pompey in the front right corner of the end zone. Pompey came down with the ball as the halftime whistle sounded.

“We were able to call that halfback pass that we took from our second game of the year,” Silva said. “We just pulled that one out because there were only nine seconds left in the first half. Aaron made a beautiful pass and Bobby made a great catch.”

The second half belonged primarily to the back-up players of both teams. Jared Cunha (seven rushes, 30 yards) did the bulk of the offensive leg work for the Huskies.

Mt. Hope scored its final touchdown with 2:20 left in the game on a fourth-and-seven play from the Tolman 29. Quarterback Scott Perry lofted a pass over the middle to a wide open Kevin Amaral and he took it in for the game’s final points.

So the Huskies, who ran the ball 37 times, had three different players throw touchdown passes and they combined to finish 3-for-4 passing for 68 yards.

“That’s a first. Don’t tell anyone our secrets,” Silva said.

Mt. Hope’s 6-1 finish is a great accomplishment compared to its 2-5 record of a year ago. The Huskies are exacting revenge against a number of teams which beat them last year.

“We have nine guys both ways coming back from last year,” Olson said. “We had such a straight plan for what we were going to accomplish this year and we just worked hard all off-season and all season. We’re just hungry for it. We want it.”

Olson finished with 132 rushing yards on a dozen carries. Booth had 60 yards on nine runs and Raiola gained 42 yards on just three carries. The Huskies compiled 273 of their 346 total offensive yards in the opening 24 minutes.