Clippers roll along
Cumberland too much for Rebels
CUMBERLAND — For a team looking to make a statement at a critical juncture in the season, the Cumberland High football team excelled to the fullest degree possible on Friday night against South Kingstown.
On homecoming weekend at Tucker Field, the Clippers stuck it to the Rebels from start to finish to secure a 49-8 Division I victory. Quarterback Dante Aviles-Santos led the charge, producing three of the Clippers’ seven touchdowns (two coming in the air and one on the ground), while Shane Meerbott, Isaiah Cole and Ryan Larson accounted for the rest, helping the Clippers improve to 2-3 in a deep Division I-A.
“We played really well in all aspects of the game today,” Cumberland coach Josh Lima said “That was the thing, obviously offensively, we did pretty well, defensively we did really well and special teams was fantastic today.”
The opening quarter told the story, with the Clippers leading 23-0 after the first dozen minutes.
Ben Fogell’s 30-yard field goal gave the Clippers the early 3-0 edge before a six-yard run into the end zone by Santos coupled with a five-yard pass to Cole made it 16-0 with just under two minutes to go.
The beatdown was only just beginning, as a blocked punt by Cam Pedro, brought back for a score, upped the lead to 23-0 and had everyone, including the raucous student body on hand, in a fervent mood.
“All season, we’re like a play away here and there and (then) the wheels fall off. We’re an extremely young football team. We’re have freshmen and a ton of sophomores on the field,” Lima said of the issues that have hindered his team coming into the night. “We’ve been making a ton of mental errors that kind of hurt ourselves. Tonight, we didn’t do that and I think that’s what it is. We played really well together and we eliminated the mental errors.”
The one exception to that statement came when a Santos run of over 40 yards for an apparent score was brought back by both a holding penalty as well as a taunting one on the Clipper quarterback who took the time to wave to the SK defenders as they attempted to chase him down the field. Lima was less than thrilled with that occurrence.
“I said to our guys ‘We don’t do that’ and we’ve never done it. Part of it I think is that it has been a tough season, a long season,” he said noting that his players were overly hyped to gave a game in which they were so dominant in all aspects. “We’re not happy about it. We’ll review it tomorrow and the guys will have their penalty yardage to do.”
A 28-yard touchdown pass from Santos to Meerbott followed by a 43-yard run from Cole accounted for both of Cumberland’s scores in the second quarter as they took a 36-0 lead into the break.
Ryan Larson added a 50-yard punt return in the third quarter, with Meerbott capping the scoring with a 65-yard fumble recovery in the end zone in a game that was all but over by that point.
The Rebels (1-4) showed brief signs of life when Rory Hazard ran 65 yards into the end zone in what accounted for the visiting team’s lone display of offense on the night, but little else went SK’s favor on the night.
“Couldn’t get going. Couldn’t get anything going,” head coach Gerry Zannella said. “We weren’t ready to go from the beginning. It was a tough one.”
For the Rebels, coming off of their first win of the year, a 36-26 victory over Moses Brown, Friday’s troubles against the Clippers began before they even set foot on the field.
“We got stuck in traffic, pregame got cut short, all of a sudden, the ball goes up in the air and we’re not ready to go,” Zanella said. “It’s no one’s fault, but we just weren’t ready to play.”
Aviles-Santos was sacked in the end zone on a failed punt attempt late in the fourth quarter to do little more than change the score from 49-6 to 49-8.
With their playoff hopes already slim entering the night, the Rebels are now in a must-win situation from here on out.
“It puts us where we have to win the last two. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’re a relatively young team, we only play two seniors and so hopefully we’re learning,” said Zanella.
SK will travel to Portsmouth for their next contest on Saturday before closing out the regular season at home against Central the following Friday.
For the Clippers, there is much more optimism moving forward as far as the postseason is concerned.
At 2-3 in the conference with two games left to go in the regular season, Lima recognized the importance of Friday’s win, but knows that there is still a ways to go.
“Division I on our side, you know Hendricken and NK are kind of up there, and everybody else is in a logjam, so this definitely helps us,” Lima said. “We’re just focused week by week right now and trying to handle our business. That’s it.”
The Clippers will be on the road next Saturday afternoon, traveling to Cranston Stadium to take on Cranston East at 1 p.m. before returning home the ensuing Friday to close out the regular season against St. Raphael.