Raiders earn revenge on Villa Novans
JOHNSTON — Approximately one month ago, Shea High’s steam engine rolled into Barry Field expecting to remain unbeaten with a hefty victory over Woonsocket in a R.I. Freshman Football League grid clash.
The Raiders, however, exhibited little fire and suffered a humiliating 26-0 pasting by the Villa Novans, who too had a win streak going.
Head Coach Jimmy Torres called that loss a turning point in his contingent’s season, stating it “turned us around.”
After what happened Wednesday night, it’s easy to see how – and why.
Diminutive but incredibly shifty Julius Gillard may have posted the premier outing of his career thus far during the Raiders’ amazingly-easy 32-0 trouncing of Woonsocket in the state Freshman Super Bowl at Joseph M. Polisena Stadium before a sparse and chilled but vociferous crowd.
He not only rushed for 168 yards and four touchdowns on a scant 11 handles, but also notched a 51-yard punt return for a score, returned an interception 15 yards and – for good measure – made sure he was in on several tackles as a corner.
“I was so pumped up; I wanted this one bad,” he grinned after the claiming the championship in Shea’s second-ever campaign as a competitor in state-wide frosh ball. “This was all about payback after what happened last time. They kicked our butts in the last one, but we came ready to play in this one.
“I know I did well, bu it was because my offensive line showed up ready to play, and I can’t thank them enough.
“I’m so thrilled.”
Stated Torres after his unit closed its season at 7-1 overall: “We’ve got a great group of kids on this team. They believe in their coaches and what we’re telling them, what we want them to do. I have to say this, once they started fighting not against each other but for each other, that’s when we saw the turnaround.
“They’ve been putting up 30plus points a game ever since,” he added. “That occurred right around Halloween – and right af- ter the loss to Woonsocket. These guys came fired up, and it lasted from before the opening kickoff until the final whistle.
“I have to say Julius is a special talent, a very gifted athlete, and the sky’s the limit for that kid of he stays on track, stays humble and committed. Then there’s Ty (Varfley), the guy we call ‘ManChild.’ We do that because he’s a man amongst boys. His mental state is such that he wants to plow through anyone to get to where he wants to go, and that’s on offense or defense.
“He runs hard, refuses to go down.”
Torres backed that up, pointing toward his performance against the Novans. He manufactured 89 yards on 15 handles.
Super defensive outings came from not only from Gillard and Varfley, but also corner Josh Maddalena and linemen Nathaniel Rodriguez, Angel Torres, Ashton Darius and Jon Oliveira.
In the initial half alone, those guys (and more) held the Novans to only 15 offensive snaps. On the ground, it rushed nine times for zero yards, and signal caller Ethan Allaire completed five of six tosses for only 24 yards. Jaiden Milatmouk caught two of them for 22.
Shea wasted little time getting to the end zone, as Gillard culminated a five-play, 64-yard opening drive with a 28-yard TD jaunt down the right sideline. Perhaps his lone blemish on the evening: a Novan blocked his PAT attempt with only 2:45 elapsed.
After a three-and-out, he scored again, this time on a 60-yard touchdown run. This time, he tried to use his legs to gain the twopoint conversion, but Anfernee Abney stuffed him with 5:54 left in the first quarter.
It appeared as if WHS might get something going after Allaire found Milatmouk wide open for a 15-yard gain in the left flat, but – who else? – Gillard stripped it. On the second pplay of the second period, Gillard galloped 27 yards, zig-zagging through the defense to make it 18-0.
(The Raiders failed on another two-pointer, this time when Josh Rego-Melo dropped Gillard’s aerial in the left section of the end zone.
The Novans actually earned their initial first down on the following possession – on Davonte Lavallee’s nine-yard rush – yet Shea forced them to punt again. This time, Gillard bobbed and weaved his way 51 yards down the field for the punt return that pushed the Raiders in front 26-0. That’s how the half ended. Thanks to Allaire’s 39-yard aerial to Lavallee down the right sideline on Woonsocket’s first snap of the second half, the Novans penetrated SHS territory for the first time of the night. That, though, resulted in two straight sacks for minus-nine yards.
Shea answered with a 58-yard, five-yard drive ending on Gillard’s two-yard sneak.
“When we won our game against them, 26-0, we had our star quarterback, Tarik O’Hagan, and he was our big playmaker on offense and defense,” noted cocoach Ronaldo Johnson. “But we had to move him up to help the varsity. We also had our best running back and center out due to academic ineligibility.
“We told the guys before this that our No. 1 game plan was to stop No. 1 (Gillard), and we didn’t,” he added. “I don’t know if it was because of the cold or what, but they didn’t look or play ready.”
Offered Torres: “Losing to Woonsocket the way we did last time, I think, actually helped us. It was the best thing to happen to us because it woke us up.”