It was a long bus ride home for many on the Mt. Hope High School varsity football team as their Division II playoff run was cut short Friday, Nov. 2, after falling 17-6 to East Greenwich on the …
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It was a long bus ride home for many on the Mt. Hope High School varsity football team as their Division II playoff run was cut short Friday, Nov. 2, after falling 17-6 to East Greenwich on the Avengers’ home turf.
“It’s a depressing loss,” admitted junior Jacob Dumkuski.
Going into the second half down by only three points, the Huskies were ready to even the playing field as they started off the third quarter with possession of the ball. That plan, however, quickly went awry when less than a minute in, sophomore Jordan Pompey’s pass was intercepted by the Avengers’ Josh Petteruti and carried 24 yds for an East Greenwich touchdown.
From there, Mt. Hope struggled to recover, turning the ball over two more times and allowing a touchdown run before Pompey was finally able to connect with junior Jalen Kopecky for a 92-yard scoring drive late in the fourth. At that point, though, time was not on the Huskies side, preventing them from building upon that momentum before the clock ran out.
Though emotions were running high as their chances to advance to the semifinals officially vanished, head coach TJ DelSanto attempted to have his team view the loss through a constructive lens.
“I told the kids, ‘it’s not what we wanted, but it is what it is and we learn from this and we grow from this and we move on,’” he said.
While Friday night’s performance may not have been their best showing, Mr. DelSanto is, overall, proud of everything the boys’ accomplished this season. With nearly 30 seniors leaving the program over the last two years, many didn’t expect the Huskies to go as far as they did, going into the quarterfinals with a 5-3 record.
“The coaches knew we had potential, but I don’t think anybody else outside the program really understood that,” he said.
Although many on the team are already grieving the loss of this year’s 12 graduating seniors, the group still has two more games to play together at home before the season officially ends—this Friday, Nov. 9, at 6:30 pm against Rogers, and Thanksgiving Day at 10 am against Barrington. From there, all Mr. DelSanto and his remaining players can do is look forward.
“Next year, we will start again.”