BRISTOL/WARREN — It probably wouldn't surprise most if a late, 10-7 Division III loss by the Mt. Hope High School football team to host Ponaganset on a soggy Saturday night, Sept. 20, made the roughly hour journey home from North Scituate a long, rough ride for the Huskies.

But that's not how second-year head coach Shane Parker saw it and nor did his hearty group of Huskies, who are just getting their 2024 journey going.

"I told the kids after the game I was super proud of them and I hope that now they believe they can play with these teams," Parker said following the loss to the Chieftains, which came a week after locals opened league play with an error-filled 34-6 setback to Classical.

Playoff teams a year ago, both Ponaganset and the Purple entered the fall considered to be among the realigned league's top sides, especially since D-III was realigned, like the rest of the state. Reigning champs Middletown and runner-up West Warwick moved up as did Moses Brown, Lincoln, Tolman

Holdovers Mt. Hope, Classical, Ponaganset, Pilgrim, Johnston, Chariho and Rogers are joined by D-II drops Cranston East and East Greenwich as well as reigning D-IV champs North Providence and runner-up Davies Voc in the revamped D-III for 2024.

"I don't think there's any question we started the year against the two best teams in the league," said Parker, who served on the staffs of previous Mt. Hope head coaches Ron Silva and TJ DelSanto. "The week before against Classical we made a ton of mistakes. It was a closer game than it seemed. Both the Classical head coach (Kris McCall) and I agreed it could have very easily been 21-21.

"This past week against Ponaganset, we still made mistakes, but fewer of them. We both sent our seniors out for the opening coin toss and they had 25 and we had five. We're a very young team and young teams make young mistakes. If we keep making fewer and fewer mistakes each week, we'll be fine. Of course, we would have liked to have won, but I think the game will build confidence in the group."

The Huskies were first on the board in the gloominess that was North Scituate last weekend when senior quarterback Ethan Martel, in just his second year as the starter, and Preston Brodd connected on a 44-yard touchdown pass and catch.

The junior receiver outfought his Ponaganset defender at about the 15-yard line for the high-arcing, then raced to the endzone for the score.

The kick for point by senior JJ Pimental gave the locals a seven-point lead they would take to intermission but not before the Huskies defense halted a potential Ponaganset drive, including a sack by Mt. Hope's Robert Annis.

A highlight of the third quarter was a more impressive defensive stand by the Huskies inside their own five-yard line late in the period. Brodd made a nice play for the locals on second down, he and Ben Martel combined for the tackle on third and Colin Maloney led the line surge on fourth along with Rocco Palazio and Matt Thibaudeau.

Unfortunately, things began to turn against the visitors at about that moment. After taking over on downs, Mt. Hope mishandled the ball in the endzone, leading to a Ponaganset safety as the third quarter ended to make the score 7-2 locals.

The Huskies gave the ball back to the Chieftains to start the fourth quarter with the ensuing free kick. But the Mt. Hope D again held, forcing a Ponaganset punt.

The Huskies, in turn, also went three-and-out. Unlike, the Chieftains, however, the locals couldn't execute the punt properly. Ponaganset's Zachari Rocchio blocked the kick and mate Lyric Picard scooped and scored a 42-yard return. Quarterback Robert Grenga then kept it for the two-point conversion to make it 10-7 hosts with 7:51 remaining in the game.

Mt. Hope's last gasp came with just under two minutes to go when they drove deep into Ponaganset territory, aided by a 16-yard pass from Martel to freshman Tyler Rhynard, who finished the night with nearly 170 all-purpose yards in the game.

The Huskies' hopes, though, were dashed when Martel's looping toss to an open receiver in the flat on fourth-and-four from the Chieftains' 20 fell to the turf.

"I feel good about where we are. I told the kids and the coaches all summer if we could get through these two games unscathed, with no injuries, I think we would OK and we have pretty much come out of these two unscathed," said Parker.

Martel is two games into his second season as the starter, Parker saying the senior is "definitely more comfortable. He worked really hard in the offseason." Martel was one of 20 regular attendees to a first-for-the-program offseason team weightlifting regimen.

The rest of the skill core comprised of Brodd, Rhynard, Pimental and another frosh Zach Borges.
Maloney is the only senior lineman on offense, starting at right guard next to junior tackle Quentin Smith and sophomore center Brayden Cummins. The left side includes juniors Martel at guard and Tom Thorpe at tackle.

"They're a young group coming into their own every week. We're still making mistakes, but that's to be expected," Parker said of his offensive unit.

Martel and Maloney are joined the front of the Huskies base defense by sophomore Thibaudeau and junior Jordan Tibbetts.

The linebackers are Brody Cavalieri, a sophomore, Palazio, a senior, Annis, a junior, and Jayden Martin, also a junior.

The defensive backs are sophomore Nick Rogers, senior Evan Rodrigues, Brodd and senior Brennan Perry.

After toiling with a couple of different looks to start the year, Parker said he's likely to lean towards having the Huskies lineup in a 3-4 defensive set in the near term at least, if not the rest of the season.

Of the rest of the fall, Parker expects his team to continue to improve and get wins. He doesn't expect his players to be "overmatched physically" like they were a bit their first two times out.

In fact, he believes Mt. Hope can "impose our will a little bit" on the opposition, especially during an upcoming four-game homestand. It's a crucial stretch of contests for the locals and their pursuit of a playoff bid at the end of the regular season.

The Huskies are home for the next month starting Friday night, Sept. 27, at 6 o'clock against East Greenwich followed Friday, Oct. 4, against Pilgrim, Thursday, Oct. 10, against Chariho and lastly Friday, Oct. 18, against Stafford (Conn.) High School. The game against the Bulldogs is part of the new Interscholastic League scheduling system, which allows teams to play games that count towards the regular against out-of-state opponents. Stafford is considered a Division II team in Connecticut.

"I think we're going to be highly competitive over the next month," Parker added. "If we put things together, we're going to be a hard team to play against. If we believe in ourselves, we should have some pretty decent results coming up. We need to put some Ws in the win column if we want to be where we want to be come November."