It was a tumultuous end to an otherwise terrific Division III season for the Mt. Hope High School football team November 8, a day spent mostly in court attempting to overturn the Huskies' seeding in the 2024 playoff bracket and an evening spent in Newport where the locals lost to host Rogers, 29-19, in the quarterfinal round of the league title tournament.

Mt. Hope's D-III slate came to a close with a 5-3 record, including the 10-point setback to the Vikings. The Huskies saw their overall mark drop to 6-3 with their annual Thanksgiving Day game against rival Barrington remaining to be played on Thursday, Nov. 27.

Before the game, administrators from the Bristol-Warren Regional School District and the Rhode Island Interscholastic League along with litigators representing each spent much of Friday day in a Providence courtroom where Mt. Hope was seeking injunctive relief to have the D-III playoff seedings changed based off of its contention the Huskies were wronged by the governing athletic body.

Ultimately, a Superior Court judge, why acknowleding issues with the RIIL's new Rating Percentage Index (RPI) points system, denied Mt. Hope's request. In the end, the Huskies' game on the road in Newport, as well as the three others in the league quarters that would have also been affected if a different decision was rendered, remained as scheduled.

"Regardless of the outcome of our court date, we needed the team and staff to remain focused on executing the game plan against our opponents, making core memories on the field and remaining united through Thanksgiving. We knew that going into court, and as we left," Bristol Warren Regional School District Athletic Director Christy Belisle said. "They played an amazing first half against Roger’s. If they can find that fire again on Turkey Day, they may just earn another trophy."

Asked if the day's events affected his team's performance, Mt. Hope head football coach Shane Parker said, "No, we've been preparing for Rogers all week and the kids have been incredibly focused.

"I told them, and everyone tries to tell them, you can't pay attention to distractions. And I told them that's not true, you have to fight through them because that's what being an adult is. You're always going to have some sort of distraction unfortunately, and you have to push through it. And they've been incredibly focused all week. And unfortunately we played a team who was better than us tonight."

Game notes
So, as was originally intended, Mt. Hope made the trek to Toppa Field Friday night where JJ Pimental scored two touchdowns for the locals while Zach Borges ran for the other. Pimental also had one kick for point to account for the rest of the Huskies' scoring.

Borges' three-yard TD put the locals on top early. Pimental's PAT made it 7-0. The hometown Vikings got on the board with a nine-yard TD run of their own, but missed the kick to leave the score at 7-6 Huskies. Mt. Hope then added to its advantage after Pimental reached the endzone for the first time on a 10-yard swing pass from quarterback Ethan Martel. The locals also missed the PAT, making the score 13-6 at the end of one period.

The super-charged offensive beginning to the game continued into the second quarter. Rogers drove for another touchdown, a run, and this time went for two, a pass, making the conversion to take a 14-13 lead.

The Vikings soon after were on the verge of scoring yet one more TD, but Mt. Hope defenders Robert Annis and Brody Cavalieri forced a turnover. Rocco Palazio recovered a Vikings' fumble at the 10-yard line to prevent any further damage.

In turn, Pimental capped the next Mt. Hope drive with a 10-yard touchdown run to put the Huskies back out in front, 19-14. Again, though, the locals couldn't convert the point, but they still led by five late in the second.

And following another defensive stop, Mt. Hope drove deep into the Rogers' end of the field and looked keen to tack on points as halftime approached.

The possession, though, stalled, but Pimental appeared to put the locals on top by eight going to intermission. However, his 30-yard field goal attempt was nullified by an illegal formation infraction. His attempt from five yards farther back was then blocked by the Vikings and score stayed at a five-point spread to the break.

Rogers eventually took control of the game with a pair of touchdowns in the third quarter, one on a short run and the other on a roll-out pass. The Vikings also made both conversions, a kick and a two, to build a double-digit margin, 29-19, by the end of the period.

Mt. Hope seemed to have a reply on the offing early in the fourth quarter. After Pimental broke off a long run into the Rogers' side of the field to the third, the drive lagged and the Huskies turned the ball over on downs when Martel was hit as he threw on fourth down from the Rogers' 11. It proved the last realistic chance for the locals to score in the game.

Rogers advanced to the league semifinals opposite top-seeded Classical in Providence Friday night, Nov. 15. The Purple shutout eighth-seeded Cranston East, 38-0, in their quarter November 8.

On the other half of the bracket, second-seeded Pilgrim edged  seventh-seeded Johnston, 28-27, while third-seeded Ponaganset whipped sixth-seeded North Providence, 53-19. 

Points problem
As for the legal matters of the day, at issue, specifically, was Mt. Hope's game against the Stafford, Conn., co-op on October 18 and how the Bulldogs should be rated according to the new power ranking system implemented by the RIIL to determine postseason positioning for schools in the Ocean State.

Stafford, which as of the week of November 3 was ranked 90th out of 150 football playing schools in the Nutmeg State, is included in the sixth of six classes in Connecticut, "S."

Attempting to utilize a caveat in the new RIIL rules, Mt. Hope submitted paperwork requesting Stafford be deemed a Division II team per Ocean State standards, rather than Division IV, which is likely where the modestly-sized co-op would usually be placed.

The RIIL, after some back and forth and some obvious miscommunication, eventually denied the request. So rather than the Huskies receiving increased points for their win over the Bulldogs, they were granted the lesser total and thus finished in the middle of the D-III playoff power rankings.

Those final rankings weren't official until the end of regular season play, which occurred the weekend of November 1 and 2.

Instead of getting one of the top few seeds in the league playoffs and a home game in the quarterfinals as local administrators and coaches expected, Mt. Hope was the fifth seed and set to travel to play fourth-seeded Rogers.

That didn't sit well locally, and eventually, following continued discussions with the RIIL throughout last week, district administrators decided to test their stance in the courts.

Case notes
The case was named "Bristol-Warren Regional School District et al. v. Rhode Island Interscholastic League" and was heard scheduled to be heard at Friday, Nov. 8, 10 a.m. in State of Rhode Island Judiciary Superior Court in front of Associate Justice Christopher K. Smith in the Licht Judicial Complex, Providence, Courtroom 16.

The district was seeking a temporary restraining order against the league to initially delay the schedule of Division III playoff games Friday evening and re-seed the bracket based on its assertion points in the new ranking system were not properly allocated to Mt. Hope.

The proceedings began late Friday morning. The plaintiffs, Bristol Warren Regional School District, presented their case led by Michael Polak, an attorney with the firm of Henneous Carroll Lombardo, LLC, which represents the district. Jeffrey Sowa, litigating on behalf of the RIIL, was the cross-examiner.

The court was in session for approximately two hours before recessing for lunch. Following an equally long two-hour break, Sowa then presented the case for the defense, the RIIL.

Later, at about 4:15 p.m., Associate Justice Smith rendered a decision, denying the restraining order. The D-III quarterfinal playoff games would go on as scheduled.

While reading his ruling into the record, Associate Justice Smith said, "Stopping all games and forcing football players across the state to push their playoffs and their championship to an unknown date is certainly more burdensome than having the games continue with Mt. Hope starting as the fifth seed."

He did, though, infer the Huskies' overall concerns with the process had merit.

"The real failure in my mind is the roll out of this RPI (ratings percentage index)," Associate Justice Smith added. "It seems that things were not properly put in place to advance this system to start this season, specifically the football season." 

He continued, referring to the testimony of Mt. Hope's Belisle and Parker,  “there was a lot of grey, and a lot of unknown, and that’s why we’re here today.”

Said Belisle of the decision, "At the end of the day, we accept the outcome and are happy the League will consider changes for the future. I could not be prouder of Coach Parker, his staff and our student athletes."

Added Parker, "Our case was validated by the judge. He said that he thought there was something that happened that shouldn't have happened. And we then got to come here (Newport) to prove everybody wrong, And we fought for the kids. I promised them I would fight for them. And the fact that all eight team got the chance to play football tonight, it's got to be solved out here anyway."

— East Bay Media Group and eastbayri.com contributing photographer Julie Furtado shot the accompanying gallery of photos.