Johnston football leans on kicking and defense for rally vs. Pilgrim. Here's what happened
JOHNSTON — Defense and special teams aren’t the most glamorous of phases, but they’re no less important when attempting to play winning football.
Johnston offered a demonstration of that long-proven truth Thursday night. The Panthers rode those two units to a rally in the fourth quarter and clinched a spot in the upcoming Division III playoffs.
Michael Carlino’s 34-yard field goal provided the winning points. Alex Fedorchuk’s sack helped set up a short field for another score. Disciplined defense on a fake punt attempt by Pilgrim handed Johnston a chance for more insurance.
The result was a 29-14 victory on Senior Night, as a packed house at Polisena Stadium watched the Panthers rebound from their only league loss of the season to date. Last week’s thriller with West Warwick was washed away thanks to 12 minutes of textbook complementary football.
“Special teams can do a lot,” Carlino said. “Special teams can win games.”
“We came here to play defense in the second half, and we did,” Fedorchuk said. “We played. We played like we were supposed to.”
Carlino’s kick with 9:29 left split the uprights with plenty to spare. Johnston showed faith in the senior after his 33-yard try at the end of the first half was blocked. The Panthers held the protection up front and Carlino turned what was a 14-13 deficit.
“We practice it a lot – multiple times during the week,” Carlino said. “They have a lot of trust in me.”
Pilgrim fumbled the ensuing kickoff inside its own 15 and Johnston (5-2, 5-1 Division III) capitalized in a flash. Matt Clements banged up the middle on a 1-yard sneak and Carlino booted the conversion to make it a two-score game at 23-14. The Patriots had just 8:22 left to rally, and they wound up falling short.
“I’m confident,” Fedorchuk said. “You saw it in the second half. We came here to play.”
Pilgrim (4-3, 3-3) had little choice but to fake a punt on fourth down in an attempt to extend its next drive. Armani Arias snuffed out a rush attempt along the right sideline for a minimal gain, turning the ball over on downs. NeAri Vasquez needed just one play to hammer the final nail, lining up as a shotgun quarterback for a 33-yard zone read keeper up the middle that was good for the killer touchdown.
“Defense was great in the second half,” Carlino said. “Our first half wasn’t the best last week (in a 33-28 loss) and it wasn’t the best this week. We adjusted at halftime, we talked with our coaches and we came out strong in the second half.”
The Patriots took a pair of leads in the game thanks to touchdown passes by Chace Roberts. He hit Dylan Roberts from 7 yards out in the second quarter and found Cole Bigelli over the middle for 10 yards midway through the third. Pilgrim’s first advantage lasted all of two plays, as Steve Finegan took the ensuing kickoff 73 yards to the Patriots 12 and quickly scored on a 3-yard run to make it 13-8.
Johnston will earn no worse than the No. 2 seed in III-B and could still steal the No. 1 spot with a win at Narragansett next week and a pair of Wizards losses to defending Super Bowl champion Moses Brown and Mt. Hope. Pilgrim is now locked in a struggle with the Quakers and Ponaganset for the final two playoff berths in III-B. The Patriots would be in with a victory over Moses Brown next week – a loss could leave Pilgrim on the wrong side of tiebreakers with the Quakers and Chieftains.
“To clinch that, it’s great,” Carlino said. “Last year we were terrible. We didn’t do well at all.”
Pilgrim 0 8 6 0 – 14
Johnston 0 13 0 16 – 29
J – Dean Paris 4 run (Michael Carlino kick)
P – Dylan Roberts 7 pass from Chace Roberts (Justyn Murphy pass from C. Roberts)
J – Steve Finegan 3 run (rush failed)
P – Cole Bigelli 10 pass from C. Roberts (rush failed)
J – Carlino 34 field goal
J – Matt Clements 1 run (Carlino kick)
J – NeAri Vasquez 33 run (kick failed)
On X: @BillKoch25
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Johnston High School football special teams, defense beats Pilgrim
