By Alex Berger

EAST PROVIDENCE — The pre-game feelings of the East Providence High School Townies and the Barrington Eagles were probably very similar going into Friday night’s Division I football contest at Pierce Field, both sides in search of a much-needed win.

In the end, it was the host Townies who walked away on the winning side of a 26-0 throttling, while the winless Eagles headed back to the drawing board.

The Townies must’ve felt very pleased after their impressive victory. And they should, as almost everything was clicking from start to finish for East Providence.

One of the biggest factors of Friday night's game was a Townies' defense that played lights out, explosive all night long. Barrington tried running the ball early on, but they couldn’t get anything going against the terrific run defense led by linebacker Michael Hall, who had a couple of great tackles in the early goings.

As for the E.P. offense, it played just as good, if not better. Like Barrington, East Providence tried running the ball multiple times, and it would eventually go on to work for them all night. As a matter of fact, every play in the Townies' first drive ended up all being rushing plays. Quarterback Ryan Ellinwood made five plays with his legs alone on the Townies’ opening drive, including a sweet third and goal play-action keeper for a five-yard touchdown.

Closing in on the end of first quarter, on the defensive side of the ball the Townies just wouldn’t let Barrington get into the game. Again, the Eagles tried to run the ball a lot, but couldn’t find any success in doing so, and gave the ball back to the Townies, who showed them how to really run the ball.

Later on the Townies continued to move the ball on the ground, but then started using a bunch of screen passes as well, which would eventually keep the chains moving, and result in another score. Back to the run, senior fullback Mario Peoples burrowed his way in for a powerful five-yard score to help give the Townies a 14-0 lead, which they would maintain to the break.

The Townies also relied heavily on Thomas Lopes when it came to their running game. Lopes was fed the ball multiple times, and was a big contributor to the Townies early scoring.

“I wanna run the ball, and I wanna be successful running the ball. Mario’s a hard runner, Tommy’s a real good hard runner, that’s how we ran, and that was are goal how to run the ball today," said EPHS head coach Jay Monteiro.

Out of intermission, the Townies' first offensive drive was unsuccessful as they turned the ball over. It seemed as if Barrington was getting ready to make the game tighter, and get the offense in scoring position but again the Townies defense would not budge, and didn’t give up a single yard on Barrington’s opening second half drive.

The next E.P. possession was arguably its best all night. The Townies again looked to the run game of Lopes and Peoples, but then quickly found themselves staring at a fourth down red zone opportunity with four minutes to go in the third.

It was at that point Coach Monteiro called a timeout to talk things over with his team, and it appeared they’d be going for it on fourth and six. It was a gutsy decision by the coach, but it was one that eventually paid off big time for the Townies. The play started off with Ellinwood faking the handoff, and then scrambling to the left trying to avoid Barrington defenders, only to find a wide open Lopes for a beautiful 40-yard touchdown pass to put East Providence up by a score of 20-0.

“Yeah it was a gusty call, and basically it’s just two crossing routes with two inside guys, and Ellinwood has to read it," Coach Monteiro said of the call. "You have one guy underneath the linebackers, one on top of it, and he threw the ball to Tommy Lopes, he made a nice catch and he scored on it.” So overall a great call by the coaches, great throw by Ellinwood, great grab by Lopes, and overall just a great play, and drive from the Townies offense."

Again, not much was going for the Eagles offense, as the Townies defense forced another three and out, leading to another great drive by the offense.

E.P.'s next drive featured a couple of nice, quick runs by Lopes, a play action pass by Ellinwood to senior, Cameron Almeida and then a bursting 22-yard fourth quarter touchdown run by Lopes to put the final stamp on the game.

“We gotta work on our offense," said former EPHS Hall of Fame coach Sandy Gorham, in his first year back on the Barrington sideline. "Our defense played (for us) pretty well. We gave them two touchdowns on penalties, we stopped them on a fourth down, stopped them there again, but they had two big penalties that gave them first downs, so that’s what killed us. I told all the kids, that if you take all the penalties away, it’s a very representative game. Our offensive line got beat up, and just got pushed all over the place, but they played hard. When we just have no offensive line, we can’t do anything.”

As a result, the Eagles continue to seek their first league win (0-4 in Division I games) and their first points of the fall. Barrington has been shutout in its four losses by a combined total of 154-0.

“The quarterback hasn’t played quarterback in three years. Our first string and second string quarterbacks are out with shoulder injuries, so the kid had four days of practice, and it showed," Coach Gorham said of his side's struggles in the passing game. "Not against a team this athletic as East Providence. We were way overmatched. Talent overrides emotions everyday, so it was a struggle. East Providence is a good team.”

The Townies improved to 2-3 in the D-I standings, beginning the home stretch of their league season with a much needed win if they hope to remain a factor in the playoff race. E.P. next faces another must-win game when the Townies travel to Cranston Stadium Friday night, Oct. 23, for a date against Cranston East.

“Well, I told the kids our season started today. We know we gotta win out to get in. Now we’re 2-3 in the league, and we got Cranston East who’s a good team," Coach Monteiro said. "We got Cranston East, South Kingstown, very good this year, and we gotta beat Cranston West. If we beat those three teams we should be able to get into the playoffs, but you know it’s up to us working together as a team.”

Photos by Alex Watrous