The Barrington High School football team dominated the first half of play, led 20-0 at halftime, and powered to a 33-14 victory over West Warwick at Maznicki Field on Thursday night, Sept. 24.

The Eagles opened the game with a 13-play scoring drive, capped by a one-yard run by quarterback Griffin Ingram. Barrington’s record improved to 1-2 with the victory; the Eagles have a bye week and then return with a home game against Cumberland on Oct. 9. 

Barrington Coach Sandy Gorham said he hopes the Eagles will build momentum from the victory.

“It gives the kids confidence that, ‘All right, we got our first win,’” he said. “Cumberland, they’re going to be another test. Division I program. They’ll be a tough test. 

“But… with a bye week, at least we can feel good about what we’ve accomplished …”

Barrington imposed its running attack upon the Wizards in the first quarter. 

Ingram handed the ball to running back Zach Borges, who followed his line down the field for big gains on the first drive. Borges found some big holes to run through in the center of the line, following Leo Johnson, Ryan Wilmarth, Tucker Paup, Anthony Eaton and Trey Paup. 

On third down and goal at the Wizards’ four-yard line, Ingram rolled to his right and dove for the end zone, but was stopped two yards short. A penalty moved the ball one yard closer, and on fourth and goal, Ingram pushed over the left side of the line for a touchdown. 

The Eagles’ defense secured the early lead with a three straight stops on the ensuing drive — Miles Dolan dropped the West Warwick quarterback for a big loss, and Owen DiOrio and Nate Romano paired up to stop the Wizards running back on second down. An incomplete pass on third down forced the punt.

The Eagles took over possession at their own 28 yard line and put together a nice drive aided by long runs from Sanders Toman and Borges, and pass plays from Ingram to receiver Jibrill Ortiz. On second down and seven from the West Warwick 21, Ingram threw a strike to Ortiz, who collided with a Wizards’ defender and then dove into the end zone. 

Barrington’s defense forced another punt on the next series as Levi Collins, Jackson Lenz and DiOrio came through with key stops. On the ensuing drive, Ingram, Borges and DiOrio each had long runs. DiOrio capped the drive with a six-yard touchdown run, and the Eagles led 20-0 at the break.

West Warwick moved the ball at the start of the third quarter. The Wizards drove deep into Barrington territory and appeared poised to score when Ortiz jumped in front of Wizards’ receiver, intercepted a pass and sprinted 90 yards down the near sideline for a touchdown. 

“We got beat the play before and I saw the QB’s eyes, where he wanted to get it to. I just read the coverage and got it,” Ortiz said.

When asked what he was thinking as he sprinted up the sideline for the touchdown, Ortiz said “Don’t get caught. Don’t get caught. It felt like I was running slow, though. But I had my blockers behind me. Great team.”

The Eagles went up 26-0, and the defense held yet again, as DiOrio, Tucker Paup and Tyler Gavopoulus dragged down West Warwick ballcarriers. The Wizards turned the ball over on downs, but Barrington fumbled on the ensuing drive at its own 8 yard line, which set up West Warwick’s first touchdown. 

The Eagles scored their final touchdown a short time later. At the end of the third quarter, Borges broke loose for a long touchdown run through the middle of the West Warwick defense. 

“It felt amazing,” Borges said. “We just executed perfectly on that play. It was perfect. Our line had a great pull. Great block. And we just executed perfectly on that one.”

Gorham was happy to have Borges back in the lineup on Thursday night. 

“He’s a tough inside runner. His foot’s bothering him. We tried to monitor that, but he was ready to go. The trainer said he’s good. He said he’s good,” Gorham said. “We were running inside trap with the type of defense they were running. I thought that’s an area we could exploit. We were able to. He makes a difference. He’s a tough, hard-nosed runner.”

West Warwick scored again in the fourth quarter to make the score 33-14, but the Eagles went back to the ground game to run out the clock. 

“We came to practice this week with a chip on our shoulder because the last two games we really should have won,” Ortiz said. “We just needed to make some changes on defense. I felt like today we made those changes and it worked out perfectly."