Playing an away game against a first place team that competes two divisions above them, the Tiverton Tigers did themselves proud during the first half of their Thanksgiving Day game against Rogers in Newport at Toppa Field.

With 4:11 to go in the first half, quarterback Stephen Gacioch startled the home crowd with a 39-yard touchdown pass to Brett Silvia to bring Tiverton (4-4 division, 4-7 overall in the middle of the Division IV pack) to within 8 points of Rogers (6-1 — first place in Division IIA).

The score remained at 14-6 at halftime (Tiverton missed the extra point on its touchdown).

That would be it for Tiverton scoring as Rogers came out from halftime with a vengeance, scoring 21 unanswered third quarter points and rolling to a 42-6 final score.

Tiverton struggled on the ground, managing 56 yards in 32 tries against the Rogers defense.

Gacioch completed 10 passes in 15 attempts for 91 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.

Tiverton’s Alec Murray was honored afterward as Tiverton’s most valuable player in the game.

Rogers’ Isaac Garcia as his team’s MVP after scoring three touchdowns and using for 176 yards on 18 carries.

Tiverton remains winless in its six-year Thanksgiving series against Rogers.

Previously, Tiverton dominated a 17-year Thanksgiving Day series against Central Falls, winning 15 of those games including the last 13 straight. Those games were played from 1993 to 2009.

Before that, Tiverton squared off against Warren on Thanksgiving Day from 1970 to 1992 when Warren became part of Mount Hope High School.

Warren took that series with 17 wins, 5 losses and a tie.