By ERIC RUEB
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NARRAGANSETT – The night couldn’t have gone any better.
Almost.
For the first time in school history, the Narragansett football team hosted a Friday night football game and lost in the pregame fireworks, the strong performance by the band, the Thriller routine by the cheerleaders and one of the best fan turnouts of the season, the Mariners lost the game to Classical, 20-14.
And while losing is never fun, Friday night was still one to remember for everyone involved.
“It means a whole lot because it’s the first night game in Narragansett history,” Mariner senior captain Jose Novoa said. “I’ll be talking about this to my kids.”
“Friday night lights is the old high school tradition,” Narragansett’s Matt Eldridge said. “You’re always psyched and with Friday night lights, you’re doubly-excited to play. You’re under the lights, the spotlights and there were twice as many people here. It was great.”

For more, read the 11/6 edition of the Narragansett Times

By KEVIN RYDER
Special to the Times

PROVIDENCE – The South Kingstown girls volleyball team wouldn’t go down without a fight, pushing Classical to the limit before falling 25-12, 25-12, 23-25 and 25-21 in a Division I quarterfinal playoff match Wednesday night.
The Rebels, the sixth seed from the South Division, finished the season 8-11, while the Purple, the third seed from the North Division, improved to 13-6 and advanced to play at North Kingstown (South’s second seed) tonight at 6:30 pm.

For more, read the 11/6 edition of the Narragansett Times

By ERIC RUEB
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NORTH SMITHFIELD – Beaten and battered, the Narragansett girls soccer team walked off the field with a smile on their faces.
Sure, the Mariners had just been eliminated by Burrillville, 2-1, in the Division III semifinals, but Wednesday night’s game was more about what the team accomplished this season with a team that should have been rebuilding, not contending.
“It’s too bad that we lost but for the last game of the season we played really well and worked really hard,” senior captain Taylor Webster said. “We pulled everything we learned from the season to this one.”

For more, read the 11/6 edition of the Narragansett Times

By BRANDEN MELLO
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CRANSTON — At times, South Kingstown junior Chelsea Gates is a victim of her own ability. Because Gates is so versatile and so amenable to do whatever it takes to win, South coach Jim Kelly often uses the junior as a chess piece to either take control of a game or slow a game down.
Wednesday night, in the Rebels’ Division I semifinal with Portsmouth at Cranston Stadium, Kelly unleashed Gates on the Patriots and there was nothing the second-place squad from I-North could do to stop the Rebels’ most creative player.
After all-state forward Amanda Graham opened the scoring with a splendid strike in the ninth minute, Gates scored goals on either side of halftime to lift the I-South champions to their second straight state final with a 3-0 win over the game Patriots. South, for the second straight year, will meet undefeated La Salle in Sunday’s state final.

For more, read the 11/6 edition of the Narragansett Times

By ERIC RUEB
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NORTH SMITHFIELD – The Prout boys soccer team didn’t need to be reminded about their history in semifinal games.
“We’ve had a little voodoo with the semifinals,” Prout coach Tim Ryan said, “since I’ve been associated with the program.”
The last four seasons, the Crusaders have made it to the round of four and each time, left one game short of a championship game appearance.
Tuesday night against West Warwick, Prout ended the unfortunate run.
Connor Hagerty scored on a header off a loose ball in front of the net and the defense shut down the powerful West Warwick attack as the Crusaders advanced to the first RIIL championship game in school history with a 1-0 win.
“We’ve lost in the semifinals the last four years,” Prout senior Christian Tiexiera said. “We’ve never gone to the championship and it’s nice to go.”

For more, read the 11/6 edition of the Narragansett Times

By DAVID PEPIN
Special to the Standard

BARRINGTON - No flukes, crazy bounces or questionable calls were involved in the making of this upset.
The same North Kingstown team that had absorbed a 5-1 beating from Barrington on Sept. 28 rolled into the East Bay Thursday night and dropped a 2-1 Division 1 boys’ quarterfinal stunner on the defending state champions, who had ripped through the D-1 East regular season with a 16-1 record.
Andy Hess scored both Skipper goals in the second half as the visitors, after a tentative start, outplayed second-seeded Barrington and shut down Eagle stars Jeff Craven and Brett Sullivan, who had shredded them for three early goals back in September. Barrington failed to put a shot on goal in a scoreless first half, and managed just two for the night.
The Skippers, seeded seventh after tying South Kingstown for second in D-1 South, were supposed to quietly exit stage left after a 4-3 shootout win over Hope in a first-round game. But somebody forget to send them the script.

For more, read the 11/5 edition of the Standard Times

By BRANDEN MELLO
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CRANSTON — North Kingstown boys soccer coach Kyle Froberg has coached talented all-state attacking players like Dan Green, Brett Uttley, Alex Birn and Billy Zile over the last five years. So, it takes a special player and person to standout from the crowd of talented players.
But, after North’s 2-1 loss to Chariho in Tuesday’s Division I semifinals, Froberg showed how much he appreciates what Andy Hess has done for the Skippers’ program over the last four years.
“Andy’s been awesome every since Day 1 as a freshman,” Froberg said just outside of Cranston Stadium. “I coached him in the Olympic Development Program (ODP) and I knew he was something special coming up.  Ever since I coached him in a game for ODP against a team from Maryland, we ended up tying the team down there 1-1 and he was just a force in eighth grade.
“I had seen him coming up and luckily he ended up coming to North Kingstown. He’s just been great.”

For more, read the 11/5 edition of the Standard Times

By PAUL J. SPETRINI
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NORTH SCITUATE—For a group that didn’t even have a designated tent area at Ponaganset High School Saturday afternoon, the Exeter West Greenwich girls cross country team sure did well in the Class C Meet.
How well? Try sixth place.
Led by the top-five finishes of senior Renae Miozzi and junior Amy Cunningham, EWG tallied 140 total team points to finish behind only Smithfield, Burrillville, East Greenwich, Scituate and Mount St. Charles in the annual lead in to the state championship.
Now, while the Knights themselves did not qualify as a team for states, they’ll be well represented as both Miozzi and Cunningham are slated to run Sunday in the sport’s biggest race of the year.

For more, read the 11/5 edition of the Standard Times

By ERIC RUEB
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CRANSTON – The North Kingstown field hockey team had no reason to be intimidated facing No. 1 seed Barrington in last Thursday’s Division I semifinal.
The Skippers might have been the No. 4 seed, but the two-time defending state champs weren’t your typical No. 4 – and they played like it.
The stat sheet tells one story, a story of NK dominating the Eagles for the entire game, possessing the ball enough to take nine penalty shots to Barrington’s four, nine shots to three and eight shots on goal to three.
But the scoreboard told another story, the one that happened last Thursday, the one where the Eagles accidentally found a goal in the first half of Thursday’s game and scored another when NK had changed its focus from defense to offense as the Skippers fell, 2-0, ending their season without a chance to play for the state title and disappointed after playing maybe its best 60 minutes of the season.
“I think they played fantastic. If you look at shots on goal and the number of opportunities we had, we outplayed them,” NK coach Julie Maguire said. “But unfortunately if you can’t put the ball in the net, you can’t get the same results”.

For more, pick up the 11/5 edition of the Standard

By KEVIN RYDER
Special to the Standard

PROVIDENCE – The North Kingstown girls soccer team, the fourth seed with a sub-.500 record, put quite a scare into the top team in the state during its quarterfinal playoff game Thursday night.
After a scoreless first half, LaSalle was able to strike for three goals over a 20-minute span to register a 3-0 victory at Cimini Stadium and advance to the semifinals of the playoffs. The loss ended the season for the Skippers, who finished 6-8-3.
“The girls put in a tremendous effort for 75 minutes, you can’t fault that,” said NK coach David Murphy. “Playing against a team that hasn’t lost a game and have very good players and are a good technical team, we gave a good effort. We knew it was going to be a hard game and we gave them a game. That wasn’t an easy 3-0 win for them.”
The key for the Skippers, who had lost a month earlier to the Rams 7-1 on the same field, was to try to control the offensive firepower that LaSalle possessed, including forwards McKenzie Meehan (42 goals, 13 assists on the season), Allison Kelley (13 goals, seven assists) and Daria Capaldi (10 goals, six assists).

For more, pick up the 11/5 edition of the Standard