EAST GREENWICH – Special teams is often cited last among the three phases of a football game, but those units earned top billing for East Greenwich in its Division III meeting with North Providence.
Owen Lehne accounted for a safety and a return for a touchdown on a pair of botched punt snaps to give the Avengers the early lead. The offense finally showed up when Mark Bradshaw made key throws to Ethan Costa and Tyler Gecawich in the second half.
The Cougars couldn’t muster enough offense to respond at Carcieri Stadium, and East Greenwich maintained its unbeaten start alongside Cranston East atop the standings. The Avengers grinded to a 16-6 triumph and beat the forecasted rainstorm that darkened the skies throughout the evening on Friday, Oct. 16.
Lehne’s tackle for loss in the end zone and 10-yard return for a score gave East Greenwich a quick 9-0 cushion, and North Providence only answered through an 85-yard touchdown run by Xavier Estrada. The Cougars only used running back Kaiden Wray (undisclosed injury) as a decoy on the opening series and didn’t find a consistent big-play threat otherwise, totaling just 108 yards and four first downs aside from Estrada's scoring jaunt.
“You can’t just be offense and defense,” Lehne said. “Special teams is a third of the game. We need to be great on everything.”
Here are three takeaways from a night that saw the Avengers win a sixth straight game to open their season.
North Providence paid for early mistakes.
The Cougars got a punt off after their first series but couldn’t do the same on the second. They faced fourth down at their own 9, and Lehne came off the left end to make a tackle in the back of the end zone and hand East Greenwich a 2-0 lead.
“I thought I could just come off the edge and get there,” Lehne said. “I wasn’t even supposed to be blitzing on that, but I saw something.”
It was a repeat performance early in the second quarter, as North Providence lined up to punt again from its own 18. Lehne came through the line again and got a hand on the ball this time, knocking it down and scooping it up before rumbling into the end zone. Ryan Maurice added the extra point, and the Avengers built a two-score advantage with 11:54 left.
“I knew immediately after the first one I had to go get the second one,” Lehne said.
The Cougars went on to miss a 32-yard field goal wide left with 6:09 to play in the fourth while attempting to close their deficit to one score. Maurice was 2-for-2 on his conversion kicks, and East Greenwich pinned North Providence inside its own 30 to start all but two of its eight possessions.
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East Greenwich takes to the air
The Avengers used a couple of big pass plays in the second half to help put this one away.
The first came with 5:09 left in the third quarter when Costa got a step on his man down the right sideline and broke free. Bradshaw hit him in stride for a 57-yard score that broke open what was a 9-6 game.
“The kid was pressed up on me, so our plan was to kind of pick him off and run around him,” Costa said. “It’s just a touchdown from there.”
East Greenwich was just 4-for-12 through the air to that point but dialed up a deep shot on a first down at its own 43. Bradshaw’s throw was on the money, and Costa sprinted away the last 25 yards toward the end zone. It was his third target of the night and a first since a pair of incompletions in the opening quarter.
“It’s completely slow motion,” Costa said. “I blacked out during the entire thing. My body took control and ran to the end zone.”
The Avengers effectively put this one away on another completion from Bradshaw to Gecawich inside the final four minutes. East Greenwich went deep right sideline on a second down, and Gecawich hauled one in for 46 yards to the Cougars 30. Brian Gibbs rushed for a pair of touchdowns to kill the remainder of the clock.
Big matchup with Cranston East
East Greenwich (6-0, Division III) has already matched its win total from last season and has a showdown with Cranston East looming in a couple of weeks.
That matchup will be the outside chatter coming out of this one. The Avengers will be focused on a long trip to Rogers up next and an attempt to avoid stubbing their toes against a Vikings team coming off a 16-0 shutout of Moses Brown.
“We know their defense is great,” Lehne said. “We’ve got to come prepared and know what we’re doing every snap.”
Complacency can be the enemy this time of year – so can an upset-minded opponent. Middletown pushed the Thunderbolts to the brink Thursday night before a late touchdown secured a 28-25 triumph. North Providence (3-3, Division III) managed to hang around into the fourth quarter despite defeats in each of its last two coming into this one.
“We’ve got to really focus in practice and not worry about what’s going on in two weeks,” Costa said. “We’ve got to focus on next week and go on from there.”
North Providence 0 6 0 0 – 6
East Greenwich 2 7 7 0 – 16
EG – Safety (punter tackled in end zone)
EG – Owen Lehne 10 blocked punt return (Ryan Maurice kick)
NP – Xavier Estrada 85 run (kick failed)
EG – Ethan Costa 57 pass from Mark Bradshaw (Maurice kick)
On X: @BillKoch25
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: 3 takeaways from East Greenwich football's win over North Providence
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