Playoffs beckon for Wardogs
Rhode Island opens up NEFL playoffs against Connecticut
jbaker@pawtuckettimes.com over the Mill City Eagles (42-20), New Hampshire Charge (41-14), the Mass. State Wolverines (54-0) and the Granite State Destroyers (38-7).
All told, in those final eight wins, Rhode Island outscored its opponents by an amazing 285-94 point differential. (That means Costa and Co. have averaged 35.63 points per game while the defense has yielded a scant 11.8).
The Wardogs, at 8-2 the second seed, will carry all of those positives into its playoff quarterfinal against the seventh-ranked Panthers (5-5) on Saturday night. Game Time is 7 o’clock at “The Boneyard” (also known as the North Smithfield High School stadium).
“Our regular season is over, and we finished second behind the Bandits, who also went 8-2, but we lost to them head-to-head,” Costa acknowledged. “Now we have the Panthers, who we beat earlier this year, so I know they’re going to come loaded for bear; they’re definitely going to bring all of their players. They’re going to want to revenge.
“The only thing I want from our guys is to be ourselves, do what we do well and play typical Wardog football,” he continued. “We just have to execute just like we have been through our last eight games. We can’t give in to the hype and think we’re better than they are before of the previous game.
“We’ve got to play like a regular-season game. We need to understand it’s a do-or-die situation, but not take it as such. We’ve had more pressure on us during the course of the season. Everyone’s got to do their jobs.
“We also need to remember that we may have won the last game against (Connecticut), but they beat us in the Super Bowl last year. I’m challenging our players to remember how they felt when they walked off that field’ ‘Do you want to feel that way again on Saturday?’”
Costa indicated he wants to see his contingent play the way it did in the campaign finale last week against Mid- – m dleboro.
“We were firing on all cylinders in that one,” he said. “We considered it more or less a revenge game after the opener, when they beat us on at last-minute TD. They had just come in from a different league (the Eastern Football League), where thy had been dominant, but we established a running game against a very strong defense.
“We used only one running back (5-9, 205-pound Josh Brandon of Pawtucket), but he went for over 100 yards and scored,” he added. “We went against our usual offensive philosophy, which is throw to set up the run.
“We had scored only two rushing touchdowns all year, but Josh took over the game. He sliced them up; then again, the offensive line did a great job. They took ownership of what they needed to do, and they did it well against a talented defensive front.
“Our quarterback, Jeff Costa (of Pawtucket), also threw two TD passes, both to Elliot Wright. Middleboro had been the top-ranked defense in the league (in terms of points allowed), but we scored 28 on them; in their previous eight games, they had only given up an average of 8.3 a game.”
The Rhode Island defense also posted a touchdown, that courtesy of Tyler Wyngard’s interception return.
“I’ve been tremendously satisfied with how we’ve played the past month, but nothing’s been achieved, at least not yet,” Coach Costa offered. “I likeb the way we’re playing, I really do, but there’s always room for improvement.
“I always tell my team that we should never accept who we are today, that there’s always an opportunity to get better, to fine-tune our skills and abilities,” he continued. “We still have a lot of things to work on; we’ve had some timing issues on the offensive side, and we continue to have problems with guys not being in the correct position to make the optimal plays.
“We’re not taking anything for granted – because you can’t. Not at a time like this.”