By JAMES BESSETTE
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NORTH SCITUATE — Peter Dion was pacing back and forth near the doorway entering the Ponaganset High School field house awaiting the fate of his East Greenwich boys’ cross country team, whether or not the Avengers be one of the top six heading to the New England Interscholastic Cross Country Championships in Manchester, Conn.
It was pretty much no different from what he did last year when the announcement came then that East Greenwich made the cut at sixth place, breathing a sigh of relief afterwards in the process.
Yet, it was déjà vu for the Avengers as, for a second straight season, East Greenwich qualified sixth place in the RIIL Cross Country State Championships with 208 points on Sunday, giving the Avengers the right to run at Wickham Park next Saturday.
Coming into Sunday’s meet, East Greenwich had a bit of a chip on its shoulder after falling short of winning the Class C Championship last week in placing second to Smithfield.

For the full story, read the 11/12 edition of the Pendulum

By BRANDEN MELLO
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CRANSTON — In the East Greenwich High girls’ soccer team’s last two visits to the Division I semifinals, the Avengers have left Cranston Stadium frustrated after one-goal losses to La Salle.
Last Wednesday night, the Avengers lost to the Rams again in the semifinals, but this loss was harder to take for EG coach Dave Petrucci than the last two.
“It’s frustrating. I don’t know what happened, we just lost focus and lost the middle of the field,” Petrucci said after the Avengers lost to the Rams 5-0 thanks to three goals from sophomore McKenzie Meehan. “… La Salle played great tonight, you have to give them credit. It’s not something we didn’t do, it’s what they did. We got caught up in the moment and they buried a couple of balls.”

For the full story, read the 11/12 edition of the Pendulum

By BRANDEN MELLO
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PROVIDENCE — East Greenwich High School junior forward Mike Monti had seen the play so many times this year that he knew exactly where he needed to be when teammate Ben Berger played a cross into the box from the byline.
Monti, who was the top scorer on a team that scored 90 goals in 19 games this season, used his brilliant track speed to get inside of his defender and proceeded to smash a perfect Berger pass into Lincoln goalie Evan Walsh’s net in the 63rd minute of Saturday’s Division II final.
“It was a perfect pass by Ben, it couldn’t have been better,” the game’s MVP said. “That’s the way we’ve scored all season. We have nearly 90 goals this season and, for the most part, all of them have come the same way. It felt really good to score that goal and this season couldn’t have gone any better. Everything was great.”
The junior added another goal in the 66th minute and Scott Douglas, who injured his left knee at the end of the first half, scored a magnificent third goal five minutes before the end of the game to lift the Avengers to a 3-0 victory and the school’s first boys’ soccer title of any kind. 

For the full story, read the 11/12 edition of the Pendulum

By ERIC RUEB
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WOOD RIVER JCT. – The East Greenwich High School girls soccer team lost last Wednesday in the Division I semifinals.
But if Tuesday night was any indication, there’s a chance the Avengers will have plenty of success in the future.
Sarah Migliori’s goal in the first five-minute overtime gave Cole Middle School a lead and the defense did the rest as the undefeated Lancers – many of whom will be Avengers in the coming years - beat Wickford, 2-1, to win the RIPCOA girls soccer state title, the school’s first.
“They’ve been working hard the whole season so they’ve been playing intense the whole season,” Cole coach Steph Gloria said. “This was an accumulation of their season so they wanted to come out on top since we hadn’t lost yet.”
“We knew that they were undefeated and we were undefeated too,” said Cole’s Sarah Beaulieu, who scored the other Lancer goal Tuesday. “So I knew this was going to be a good game and was going to come down to whoever wanted it more.”

For the full story, read the 11/12 edition of the Pendulum

By DAVID PEPIN
Special to the Standard

NORTH KINGSTOWN - Nothing ruins an upset bid like a little too much of Portsmouth’s A.J. Pollock and Patrick Fagan.
Looking nothing like the team that had lost 47-0 at Bishop Hendricken seven nights earlier, the winless Skippers threw a good scare into Portsmouth Friday night before the visitors escaped with a 28-12 win.
The Skipper defense was never quite able to stop Pollock, who squirted through small holes and busted tackles on his way to 186 yards and four touchdowns on 27 carries. Fagan quarterbacked the Patriots to victory, but did much more damage as a defensive end, where he recorded three sacks and disrupted North Kingstown’s offense all night.

For the full story, read the 11/12 edition of the Standard Times

By KEVIN RYDER
Special to the Standard

PROVIDENCE — In a game that carried major playoff implications, Exeter-West Greenwich used the one-two punch of running backs Adam Sweeney and Alfred Georgio for a 22-14 win over host Hope Saturday afternoon.
With the win, the Scarlet Knights (4-2 Division IV, 5-3 overall) jumped into second place in the division standings behind first-place Middletown (6-1), while Hope (4-3) is now on the fringe of the playoff picture behind three teams who are tied with third place — Classical, Scituate and North Smithfield.

For the full story, read the 11/12 edition of the Standard Times

By BRANDEN MELLO
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KINGSTON — After a very forgettable first game in Tuesday’s Division I semifinal against I-North champion East Providence, the North Kingstown girls volleyball team served, passed, set and hit its way to precipice of victories in the ensuing two games.
The Skippers, who limped into the playoffs after losing four of their last five regular-season matches, rode the hot hand of outside hitter Annie Ragan to tie the Townies at 22 in the second game and a 19-18 lead in the third game.
But the Skippers simply couldn’t put away the Townies. Because of two late service errors in the second game and another back-breaking service error in the third game, the Townies topped NK with a 25-17, 25-22, 25-21.

For the full story, read the 11/12 edition of the Standard Times

By PAUL J. SPETRINI
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NORTH SCITUATE—As the members of the North Kingstown boys and girls cross country teams boarded their buses and headed home following last fall’s RIIL Cross Country State Championship meet, there was a sense of disbelief in the air.
The Skippers, having finished 12th and seventh, respectively, were, for the first time in recent memory, not heading to New Englands. Their season, in an instant, was unexpectedly over.
That one surreal moment of disappointment, of surprise, has been the driving motivation this fall for the boys and girls of NK. All of their practices, all of their meets, were in preparation for the 2009 state meet, in preparation for a chance at redemption, for a chance to get back to regionals.

For the full story, read the 11/12 edition of the Standard Times

 By BRANDEN MELLO
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PROVIDENCE — A four-minute span of play in the second half of the Exeter-West Greenwich girls’ soccer team’s Division II final against Smithfield Sunday afternoon basically epitomized the way the afternoon went for the underdog Scarlet Knights.
Already trailing by two goals, the Knights had a chance to cut its deficit to one with 20 minutes left when leading scorer Hayley Kenyon beat her defender and broke in on goal. Kenyon’s point-blank shot was saves by Mackenzie Dunphy and the Sentinels, minutes later went down the field and scored a back-breaking goal.
Undeterred, the Knights came back down the field a minute later and senior Chelsea Neves-Carr hit the near post with a perfect, one-timed shot. It was just that type of day for the Scarlet Knights, who were put to the sword by a goal and two assists from Ashley Kuhar in a 3-0 loss at Rhode Island College.
“I thought we played well and I actually think we dominated a majority of the game, it’s just soccer,” Exeter-West Greenwich coach Kevin Fraser said after his team ended its historic season 11-4-4. “Sometimes you can have the ball a lot and not score and the other team gets a couple of breaks and chances and they finish them off. It’s part of the game.”

For the full story, read the 11/12 edition of the Standard Times

By BRANDEN MELLO
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PROVIDENCE — Chariho senior goalie Brad Borsay remembers the first big playoff game he played in as a Chariho High student. It was Borsay’s freshman year when the Chargers lost a Division I volleyball semifinal at Rhode Island College to an undefeated team that went on to win its four straight state title.
Who was that team?
“My freshman year we lost to Hendricken,” Borsay said. “Last year we also lost to Hendricken.”
While most of Borsay’s teammates didn’t have a history with the Hawks prior to Saturday’s Division I boys’ soccer state final against Hendricken, Borsay has a reservoir full of bad playoff memories thanks to the parochial powerhouse from Warwick.
That was until Saturday afternoon when Borsay made eight saves and shut out the Hawks to help the Chargers earn their first Division I state title in boys’ soccer and the school’s first title of any kind since the school’s boys’ basketball team won the Division II title in 2006.

For the full story, read the 11/12 edition of the Chariho Times