Panthers make improvements, blow out Mt. Hope

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What a difference a week makes.

After being shutout 14-0 two weeks ago at the hands of Woonsocket, the Johnston High School football team responded last Friday night with a lopsided 43-6 victory over the Mt. Hope Huskies at Mt. Hope High School. It was the first Division II-A win of the season for the Panthers and the first league loss for the Huskies.

“Everybody played well and I am proud of all our players," said Johnston head coach Joe Acciardo. “We came out and executed like we are supposed to and I don't think Mt. Hope was expecting that from us. We were clicking on all cylinders – tackling, blocking, running and compared to the week before against Woonsocket we were like two different teams. We made a good recovery from last week thanks to a better week in practice. I did not want to see two games in a row like the Woonsocket one.”

The two teams played a scoreless first quarter, but Johnston would tally two touchdowns in the second quarter to give it a 16-0 lead at halftime. Mark Breton ran for a 4-yard score and Marc Conte had a 20-yard touchdown run for the Panthers in that first half.

One of the biggest plays of the first half for the Panthers came on defense when Conte tackled Mt. Hope quarterback Kyle Valenzuela. The Huskie signal caller injured his ankle and would not return to the game. It was a big loss for the Huskies, because their offense would struggle to move the ball the remainder of the game and Valenzuela was also their place kicker, punter and starting cornerback on defense.

“Any time you take a weapon away from an offense it is big, we could now concentrate on their fullback,” Acciardo said. “There are not too many teams when you knock their starting quarterback out that can recover. We are fortunate to have two really good quarterbacks in Mark Breton and Mike Caparco."

The only points the Panthers would allow came in the third quarter when Aidan Silva returned a kickoff for an 80-yard touchdown. Johnston would put the game out of reach with four second-half touchdowns. Alex Tenerella caught an 18-yard pass from Caparco for a touchdown to go along with his five tackles and one sack. Joe Peters, who was the team's leading rusher with 103 yards, scored from 7 yards out and Tyler Nasisi scored his first touchdown of the year with a 10-yard run.

Devin Leary capped the Panther scoring with a 47-yard interception return and Peters kicked his first extra point of the season.

The Johnston running game was back in business after struggling in the Woonsocket game. Johnston ran for a total of 221 yards. Conte was the team's second-leading rusher of the night with 50 yards. Konstantinos Kirios and Curtis Mathieu led the Panthers with six tackles each.

“Mt. Hope is a tough team,” Acciardo said. They were picked at the beginning of the year to win it all so this is a big boost for us."

The Panthers look to make it two league wins in a row as they host Toll Gate High School tomorrow night at 7 p.m. It will mark the return of former longtime Panther assistant coach Matt Mancuso, who is in his third year as head coach of the Titans. Toll Gate is still looking for their first league win of the year after losing to Warwick Vets and Coventry.

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