Warriors remain perfect
Central Falls rolls to another road victory
WARWICK — The Central Falls High team bus arrived late at the Warwick Vets gridiron on Friday night; in fact, with about 18 minutes to spare before the opening kickoff.
That came due to a traffic jam near Providence Place, stated head coach Jeff Lapierre.
Despite the tardiness, the Warriors proved to warm up quickly against Division III-B foe Toll Gate. Junior quarterback Dutchie Arroyo racked up 114 yards and two touchdowns on a mere seven carries, and completed two of six passes for 36 more as Central Falls rolled to a
22-0 victory before perhaps 150 fans on the former Hurricanes’ turf.
For the record, Arroyo also caught a pass for six yards, and all of those statistics lifted the Warriors’ league mark to a perfect 4-0 (4-1 overall).
The Titans fell to 2- 3 overall and 1-2 in III-B.
The triumph nevertheless came at a price. Senior running back Elijah LaBlue sustained a shoulder injury, and junior lineman Warren (“Bubba”) Smith a concussion.
“We had two serious injuries, but we go by the mantra of ‘next man up,’” Lapierre said afterward, noting usual starting signal caller Sergio Velez was unavailable, so he chose to start sophomore Luis Gonzalez.
“Luis stepped in, and then we decided to go to Dutchie to get more experience back there,” he added. “We had numerous other guys step up. I’m most pleased with the fact that we stayed the course and worked with the next-up attitude. As a result, we picked up a critical victo- ry with a shutout.”
Following a Toll Gate pick by Amedio Ucci, the Titans took over at the CF 49 early in the first quarter and drove to the 33 before turning it over on downs. Not long after, Lapierre moved to Arroyo behind center, and he quickly fashioned an 11snap, 92-yard drive ending on his 35-yard TD pass to senior Leonardo DaVeiga in the left section of the end zone with 6:07 left before intermission.
Senior Keven Moreira tacked on the PAT for the 70 advantage.
After a TG three-and-out, Arroyo made the most of the second snap of the following possession; he took the pigskin off left guard, used a spin move at the line of scrimmage and zig-zagged 57 yards to the house for his first rushing TD.
Arroyo also notched the two-point conversion on a direct snap and jaunt around left end to up the lead to 15-0 only 3:03 after his scoring toss to DaVeiga.
The hosts then manufactured their finest drive of the evening, moving 62 yards on seven plays to the CF 3 as time ticked down. In the end, however, freshman QB Greyson Pasquina couldn’t receive the snap before the head official blew the whistle, and the Titans came up empty-handed.
CF took advantage of junior linebacker Jonathan Acosta’s eight-yard sack of Pasquina to give the Warriors the ball at the TG 45 midway through the third, and Arroyo capped a six-play possession with a two-yard bootleg around left end.
Moreira mustered the extra point, lifting the Warriors to the 22-0 cushion – and victory.
It should be noted that DaVeiga broke up at least five passes from his cornerback spot, and other key defenders included Acosta, senior Alex Fung, junior Jordan Alvarado and Smith, to name only a quartet.
Alvarado added 44 yards on six carries in the lopsided decision.