Woonsocket deals JHS first football loss

Missed opportunities, penalties, and four turnovers proved costly as the Johnston High School football team dropped its Division II-A opener against the Woonsocket Villa Novans at Barry Field by a score of 14-0 on Saturday afternoon.

It was only the third time in the past seven seasons that a JHS team has been shutout in a league game.

“We are dealing with youth,” said Johnston head coach Joe Acciardo. “We warned our players that if they keep practicing poorly they will play poorly and it showed today. Our practices have been inconsistent this week and we had a lack of work ethic in practice. You have to show up every day and play your ‘A’ game.”

Both teams won their non-league games the previous week. Johnston blanked Ponaganset 34-0 and Woonsocket beat Division I East Providence in the final seconds 26-21.

In Saturday’s game, the Panthers missed out on two early chances to take the lead. On their second possession, quarterback Mike Caparco completed two passes to Mark Breton to set up first-and-goal at the Woonsocket 9-yard line. The Villa Novan defense, however, held the Panthers on four downs, keeping the game scoreless.

Woonsocket took over on its own 10-yard line but quarterback Miguel Raymond fumbled and the Panthers’ Derric Vigeant recovered it at the home team’s 8-yard line.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, they again failed to cash in as Joe Peters’s touchdown run was nullified by a penalty and Breton’s quarterback sneak for a score was also negated because of a penalty for too many men on the line of scrimmage.

For the second time in the first quarter, Johnston failed to score inside the Villa Novan 10-yard line.

“We had a lot of opportunities to score and we just could not make things happen,” Acciardo said. “We made a lot of mistakes that hurt us and we could not capitalize on chances to score and they hung around in the game.”

Late in the second quarter, a Caparco interception set the Villa Novans up at the Johnston 12-yard line but the Panther defense would hold. Kenny Kue made a big tackle on fourth-and-goal with 50 seconds left in the half to keep the game scoreless at intermission.

The third quarter opened with a good kickoff return by Woonsocket's Will Andino, setting up the offense at mid-field. On the first offensive play of the second half, Raymond dropped the snap out of the shotgun but managed to recover and found a receiver Austin Wolter over the middle of the JHS defense that resulted in a 50-yard touchdown.

“I give the Woonsocket coaching staff credit,” Acciardo said. “They saw something and capitalized on it, it was probably a halftime adjustment and they came out and executed.”

Johnston was still well within striking distance but couldn’t mount a charge.

The Panthers’ Marc Conte, Curtis Mathieu and Josh Tineo had good runs on the following possession but the drive stalled. Peters’ punt was downed at the Villa Novan 12 where the JHS defense would force a punt. Johnston had good field position at mid-field, but Caparco was intercepted for the second time in the game.

Later in the fourth quarter, a Panther fumble gave the Villa Novans the ball at the JHS 40. With 7:15 left in the game, D'Andre Thomas capped the ensuing drive with a touchdown run from five yards out, giving the home team a two-score lead.

JHS tried to get something going but a pass by Breton was tipped into the hands of Thomas, which enabled Woonsocket to run out the remaining 4:38.

“We should have put points up in the fist half and when it’s 0-0 at halftime you have to come out and put some points up in the second half,” Acciardo said. “It was not our day today. Hopefully there will not be many more games like this.”

Peters led the Johnston offense with 48 yards rushing and Conte had 47 yards. Paul Robitaille recorded a team-high six tackles.

The Panthers will be in action tomorrow night as they look for their first division win of the season as they travel to Mt. Hope High School for a 7 p.m. contest. Mt. Hope won its league opener last week 28-14 over Westerly.