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Reuben Paygai (No. 2) caught a 43-yard touchdown in Saturday's win. Photo by Jerry Silberman. By JAMES BESSETTE
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WEST WARWICK — The Wizards proclaimed Saturday afternoon that this was only the beginning, which could be a big problem for the rest of Division II-A for the remainder of the season. Outside of dealing with a plethora of bugs during the second half, the West Warwick contingent at Maznicki Field was treated to a solid season-opening performance by the Wizards, who topped Pilgrim in convincing fashion 21-0.
Leading into Saturday’s contest, much of the hoopla surrounding West Warwick was focused on the running backs. However, it was the Wizards’ ability to penetrate into the Patriots’ backfield which stole the show and brought much of the noise from the West Warwick fans. Along with holding Pilgrim to 80 yards rushing combined from five different backs – 66 of them from Jonathan Hunt – West Warwick was extremely impressive against the pass, sacking quarterback Justin Martin three times and allowing just 11 yards through the air. “It was great to post up a zero on defense,” Shane Lagor, who received a Gatorade shower on the sidelines after his first win as new head coach, said, “especially starting off the season. We know we have the capabilities and the athleticism to put up the shutouts.” Jordan Koehler was very strong as a defensive end. Koehler made great penetration into Pilgrim’s backfield for much of the game with one sack and one huge tackle on Pilgrim’s Michael Natale for a loss on a 4th-and-4 play to stop a Patriot drive in the red zone midway through the fourth quarter. According to Lagor, the team switched Koeher from linebacker to the defensive line during the Injury Fund game against Cranston West. Although Koehler is still adjusting to the new position, he’s been reading the plays off of the ball much better at the line rather than from linebacker, up to this point. “He seems to be reacting very well,” Lagor said of Koehler. “We’re just cutting him loose and letting him go and I think he’s loving it.” Lagor also said the West Warwick secondary – Russell Strickland and Jimmy Mullins at the corners and Kenny Olivieri at safety – was making better reads on the passes to play a successful one-on-one with the receiver. But, even with the tight one-on-one coverage, West Warwick had chances to intercept Martin but couldn’t finish the catch. Another problem was West Warwick timing the linebacker blitz up the middle off of the snap. Twice the Wizards attempted to execute the play and twice the team was a second too early, coming across the line for an encroachment penalty. That, and the offensive line committed far too many penalties in the first quarter, turning a 50-plus yard gain by Willie Alves deep into Pilgrim territory into nothing. “Our execution isn’t where we wanted it to be right now,” Lagor said. “I think it’s more mental than physical. I told the guys afterwards that if you can’t execute mentally, then you can’t do it 100 percent physically. I think there were some mistakes that we made in our assignments, blocking assignments that we need to correct on.” West Warwick opened up the scoring midway through the second quarter when Strickland was set up in the shotgun with four receivers streaking down the field against Pilgrim’s Cover 3. Strickland made an excellent read off of the snap that Martin, the Pilgrim safety, cheated into the right slot to go against “jet” which allowed Strickland to connect with Reuben Paygai down the middle for a 43-yard touchdown for the 7-0 lead. The Wizards struck again when Mullins took the hand-off up the middle for a nine-yard touchdown with under a minute remaining in the half to cap a 10-play, 55-yard drive for a 14-0 advantage over Pilgrim. Midway through the third quarter, Strickland led the Wizards on another scoring drive, this time with his feet, running a quarterback keeper on a left slant for a 23-yard gain just short of the pylon. Strickland, however, came down with a cramp but walked off of the field and was kept out for the rest of the game. Still, West Warwick wasn’t denied of its third touchdown of the game, a one-yard keeper up the middle by Ethan Jacques made the score 21-0 with 5:52 to go in the quarter. West Warwick stays home next Saturday when Tolman pays Maznicki Field a visit. Lagor hopes that Alves will be healthy after rushing for only 38 yards Saturday. Lagor said that Alves told him that he was 100 percent “unless he’s cutting,” which is a bit of a problem since almost all of Alves’ ability relies on quick jukes to fool defenders. |
