It's great to see us respond with our backs literally up against the wall.”

Ryan Moniz, PHS head football coach

PORTSMOUTH — With a first down only two yards from the goal line and less than a minute left on the clock, Cranston West looked poised for a dramatic come-from-behind victory Friday night.

The Portsmouth Patriots’ defense had other ideas. 

The Falcons tried four times to get into the end zone and failed — with sophomore Dan McKinnon’s interception on fourth down sealing a thrilling win for Portsmouth on Senior Night.

The win improved the Patriots’ record to 6-1 in Division I-A and set them up for their first home playoff game next week since 2010. 

The game didn’t look like it was going to be close at first, as Portsmouth jumped to a 24-7 lead with 11:24 early in the fourth quarter. 

Portsmouth first got on the board with quarterback Kyle Bicho finding tight end Nick Amaral for a 10-yard catch-and-run with 6:41 left in the first quarter.

The one early miscue for the Patriots came near the end of the first quarter, when a Bicho pass was intercepted by the Falcons’ Cameron who ran it in. The point-after was good to tie the game at 7.

Junior Brian Hamilton started the second half with a couple of first-down runs. A face mask penalty against Cranston West and a Bicho keeper brought the ball to the 5-year-line, but Portsmouth had to settle for a field goal to make it 10-7 with just over 7 minutes in the half.

Bicho later found Peyton Robinson for a 40-yard pass play, and then a 10-yard catch-and-run to the end zone to make it 17-7 with 55 seconds left in the half. 

There was no further scoring until 11:24 to go in the fourth quarter, when Portsmouth sophomore Simon Roy ran the ball 27 yards for a touchdown, extending the home team’s lead to 24-7 lead with just over 11 minutes left.

Big plays close gap

But on the Falcon’s next drive, Such ran up the middle untouched and kept going — 80 yards for a touchdown. The point-after was no good, making it 24-13 with 11:10 left.

An onside kick was recovered by the Patriots’ Eric Federico, a sophomore, at midfield. Portsmouth ended up punting, but it was a good one that backed the Falcons right up against their own goal line. No matter, however, as Falcons junior Shad Pinthiere took a short pass and ran the ball up the left sideline — 99 yards into the end zone. A two-point conversion was successful, making it a 24-21 game with 6:22 left.

The Patriots’ next drive didn’t go anywhere and they punted. After losing Such to an apparent leg injury in the fourth quarter, the Falcons drove the ball down to the 2-yard-line, making it first-and-goal with less than a minute on the clock.

But the visitors could not punch the ball in. Luke Cafarella and Cam Thomas stopped Falcons’ running back Cameron Alves, then Cafarella and Jacob Paulon stuffed him for a 2-yard loss. On third down, Cranston West quarterback Nicholas Dionizio threw incomplete, setting up fourth down with 15 seconds left.

The Falcons could have attempted a short field goal to tie things up, but the wind had picked up considerably in the second half and was now blowing in their faces. They decided to throw, and Dionizio’s pass was picked off by McKinnon on the right side.

Handling adversity

“We gave up some big plays,” Patriots head coach Ryan Moniz acknowledged after the game. “We gave up two of them in what, six minutes or so? That’s a credit to (Cranston West). Will Such is a great running back. I hope he’s OK.”

As for that 99-yard pass play, “we had young corners who have been playing great all year, but they undercut the route a little bit and made a sophomore mistake,” he said.

It was good to see the team answer back with the goal-line stand, the coach said.

“This is something we’ve talked about a lot during the course of the year. We have handled adverse situations tremendously the entire year. And it’s great to see us respond with our backs literally up against the wall,” Mr. Moniz said.

“What a wonderful night to honor our seniors that we have. We have eight of them. We graduated 21 of them a year ago and many people thought we wouldn’t be in the spot we’re in right now but it’s a testament to their leadership on how we got here.”