Coventry continues its winning ways on Thanksgiving, topping rival West Warwick
COVENTRY — Need further evidence times have changed in the Pawtuxet Valley?
The program that couldn’t win a football game on Thanksgiving now can’t lose. A third straight class of Coventry seniors will graduate in June knowing only victory in their bitter rivalry series with West Warwick.
Zane Parenteau and Mason Martin are the latest departing heroes for the Oakers. Nate Petrarca and Cam Jones will be back for more next fall, hoping to extend what is now a five-game winning streak against the Wizards on the holiday.
Martin’s strip-sack in the end zone and Petrarca’s fumble recovery for a touchdown put this one to bed in the fourth quarter. Coventry closed out a 30-14 win over West Warwick on a sun-splashed morning behind its school, tacking another year onto a run that began in 2018.
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“It’s really just our mentality,” Petrarca said. “Big step up from the coaching staff. Everyone was working together – all working together and playing for each other.”
The Oakers looked ready to salt this one away on offense. They held a 16-14 lead and drove to the Wizards 4 before fumbling on an attempted quarterback keeper. Coventry’s defense picked up the slack on the ensuing series, as Martin came off the edge to wrap up Nathan Corona and Petrarca pounced on the loose ball under the goalposts.
“I kind of told everybody on the sideline to stay calm,” Coventry coach Anthony Alejandro said. “I was confident in our defense. I thought we were either going to get a safety or we were going to force them to punt. I didn’t expect the strip-sack and the touchdown.
"I knew we weren’t going to break. Our backs were against the wall and we were going to go after them.”
Petrarca’s 2-point conversion rush gave the hosts a 24-14 lead, and West Warwick turned it over on downs at the Oakers 30 to spoil its final possession of the season. Coventry’s defense made three other stops in its red zone, including before halftime with the Wizards looking to jump ahead. The Oakers took an 8-6 edge to the locker room despite James Branch getting started on a big rushing day – he closed with 216 yards and two touchdowns on 34 carries.
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“We’ve just been working on preparing for the next season,” Petrarca said. “Working on our mistakes and being more disciplined. Really just putting our all into this game.”
It was the second game between these two teams in barely three weeks. West Warwick captured a historic Division III quarterfinal, 19-6, on its home field and eventually reached the Super Bowl. Alejandro held a team meeting after that defeat against the Wizards and gave his players the next week off before returning to practice.
“We had a meeting Monday after school in a classroom and kind of aired everything out – what went well, what went wrong,” Alejandro said. “We said we had to send the seniors off on top. We just kept preaching that.”
Branch’s 13-yard touchdown run on West Warwick’s opening series gave the visitors a 6-0 lead. Coventry capitalized on a short field after a fumbled Wizards punt snap to turn the tables, with Parenteau slamming 2 yards up the middle. Branch’s 3-yard scoring rush midway through the third quarter put West Warwick (8-3) ahead again before the Oakers (5-4) responded, as Jones hit Max Letourneau for a 44-yard gain up the right sideline and then snuck over from the 1.
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“The quarterfinal game, we were disappointed,” Petrarca said. “We feel like we could have put a little more into that and came out with a victory.”
Success finally arrived in the rematch, and Coventry continued to eat into its all-time deficit in the series of 45-14-2. The Wizards piled up 13 straight wins from 2005-17, but the Oakers have been in command since a 22-16 breakthrough. There was even room for some sportsmanship at the end of this one – Coventry senior Tino Almeida raced 70 yards up the middle for a touchdown on the game’s final play, escorted by his teammates and only lightly chased by West Warwick’s defense.
“We talked about the tradition and we talked about what we were playing for,” Alejandro said. “We just wanted to send everybody off on top.”
West Warwick 6 0 8 0 – 14
Coventry 0 8 0 22 – 30
WW – James Branch 13 run (kick blocked)
C – Zane Parenteau 2 run (Nate Petrarca rush)
WW – Branch 3 run (Keagan Gormley pass from Nathan Corona)
C – Cam Jones 1 run (Petrarca rush)
C – Petrarca fumble recovery in end zone (Petrarca rush)
C – Tino Almeida 70 run (no conversion attempted)
Individual stats
Passing: WW, 3-11-0 38 (Nathan Corona 2-8-0 32, James Branch 1-3-0 6); C, 4-10-0 98 (Cam Jones 4-10-0 98).
Rushing: WW, 44-249 (Branch 34-216, Corona 4-22, Caden Denton 4-8, Tyler Robinson-Scholl 1-5, Karl Swanson 1-(-2)); C, 26-217 (Zane Parenteau 14-109, Tino Almeida 1-70, Jones 6-29, Nate Petrarca 4-9, Josiah Cosme 1-0).
Receiving: WW, 3-38 (Swanson 2-11, Keegan Duane 1-27); C, 4-98 (Max Letourneau 2-62, Mason Martin 1-25, Wyatt Cardarelli 1-11).
On X: @BillKoch25
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Coventry extends Thanksgiving winning streak over rival West Warwick
