Middletown football waited a full year for a chance at redemption. The wait was worth it

CRANSTON — Juleun Gilman remembered the quiet bus ride.

“Nobody talked on the way home,” he said.

T.J. Buzard didn’t recall many details, but he thought about the feeling all the time.

“I wiped most of it from my memory, but I was just crushed,” Buzard said. “Basically, I thought about it every day. It was sad seeing everyone I had worked so hard with, especially the seniors, sitting in the back of the bus with tears in their eyes.”

One year later, the Middletown High School football team returned to the same Cranston Stadium turf where its championship dream ended. The Islanders changed their fortunes in dominant fashion, romping to a 48-6 victory over West Warwick in the Division III Super Bowl on Saturday afternoon.

More: Is Middletown the team to beat in D-III football? The Islanders stated their case Friday

“Probably the week after, we came back and started working for this year,” Julien Delacruz said. “We put everything to work. We skipped out on all our friends and just came out and worked. We knew we wanted to come back, but we knew we were getting it this time. We came back better than ever.”

Middletown won three D-III championships in a span of five seasons from 2010 to 2014. Last year’s run brought them back to the title round, and Saturday’s win returned the proud program to the top.

A meeting in January set the tone for what was to come.

“Our coach pulled out his notebook the other day from our first leadership council meeting. We said everything we needed to do and we did all of it,” Buzard said. “We’ve had leadership councils every year. But this was about asking what was different at the end of the season last year. We started out hot and then we kind of died down. Our coaches wanted to know what we thought went wrong. We wrote down things like make sacrifices, stay committed, and that’s what we did.”

More: Here's what you need to know about Saturday's Middletown vs. West Warwick Super Bowl

The Islanders have been on a tear since Sept. 16, when they lost their league opener to Classical. Five straight victories and a rise to first place followed. The playoff draw was difficult; defending champ Moses Brown had dropped a few games when the injury bug struck and fallen to the No. 4 seed. The Islanders navigated the Super Bowl rematch for a 21-14 win, then survived a semifinal challenge from Johnston for a 20-14 win.

More battle-tested and determined than ever, Middletown left no doubt in the title game. West Warwick was in the midst of its own special season and had an answer for an early score. Middletown’s response was a knockout - six touchdowns, two forced turnovers and a shutout for the final three quarters.

“Being here last year, it helped tremendously,” Gilman said. “We know this environment.”

Gilman piled up 235 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Delacruz tossed three touchdown passes, two of them to Patrick Cranson. Frank Morey MVP Award winner Trent Ames had touchdowns on the ground, through the air and via an interception return that was the game’s biggest play.

Delacruz and Cranson connected for the first score of the day just two-and-a-half minutes into the opening quarter. A heavy dose of star running back James Branch led to a Wizards touchdown, with Joshua Pedus finishing out a 14-play march. The PAT was blocked, keeping Middletown in front.

Any West Warwick momentum was crushed immediately. On the first play of Middletown’s next possession, Gilman took a handoff to the left and broke a 73-yard touchdown run.

“You look at him and you almost underestimate his speed,” Middletown head coach Matt Kestler said of Gilman. “But he doesn’t seem to get caught once there’s green grass. He’s been doing that all year, so I wasn’t surprised he had a big day.”

After the game’s first defensive stop, the Islanders drove for another score, as Delacruz found Ames for an 8-yard touchdown that made it 20-6. West Warwick finally came up with a stop late in the second quarter, and it wasn’t hard to envision the Wizards using it to turn the tide. Instead, on the next play, Ames jumped a route in the flat, intercepted the ball and raced 42 yards for a touchdown.

“That was a huge momentum shifter,” Buzard said. “Trent is on my side. I had a front row seat. They were kind of moving there, and Trent just silenced them.”

Another sudden change set the course for more Middletown dominance in the second half. Pedus returned the opening kickoff of the half deep into Islander territory but fumbled at the end of the run, as Middletown’s Cameron Miller popped the ball out. Dawson McGowan recovered it.

Five plays later, Delacruz found Cranson on a short route, and Cranson broke free for a 67-yard touchdown.

Twenty minutes remained in the game, but it was essentially over. Gilman rumbled for his second touchdown late in the third quarter and Ames put the finishing touches on his MVP performance and the victory with a fourth-quarter score.

West Warwick is certainly a better team than the score would indicate, but the interception and kickoff return fumble made an uphill climb that much steeper. Middletown’s defense never let up. West Warwick’s first scoring drive covered 60 yards; for the rest of the game, the Islanders allowed just 72 yards. Branch finished with 105 yards on the ground, but the Wizards couldn’t find much else.

“We stressed all week, Branch is a great running back and Pedus is also very good,” Kestler said. “It was a concern. We had stopped the best this year. We held Myles Craddock - he still had a great day - but we held him in check. That was the mindset coming in, too. They’re going to get their plays, but flush it once it’s over and let’s make sure we don’t compound the big plays.”

It was a complete performance from the Islanders, nothing new for a team that found many different ways to win this year, while navigating some significant injuries along the way. They stuck together and believed, embracing team goals over individual accolades. The same was true in every moment on Saturday. Standout wide receiver R.J. Wiggins had a relatively quiet day by his standards, but there he was in the third quarter, throwing a block that helped spring Cranson on his long touchdown.

“You’ve got to give props to everybody,” Delacruz said. “All 38 of these guys are dogs - JV, varsity, it doesn’t matter. The line worked so hard today. They were awesome. The coaches - they put more hours in than any coaches in the league.”

As the final minutes ticked down, a few Islanders went to work behind the bench, making sure the team’s cooler had enough liquid in it to give Kestler a proper - and very cold - celebratory shower. When it was over, they raced onto the field, celebrating where last year they were crying.

The bus ride back to Aquidneck Island would not be silent on this day.

And these memories will last.

“We’ve been thinking about winning this for a long time,” Buzard said. “I knew we had the team to do it, and I’m so glad we did.”

MIDDLETOWN 48, WEST WARWICK 6 

First Quarter

M - Julien Delacruz 8 pass to Patrick Cranson (Cranson kick), 9:33

W - Joshua Pedus 1 run (kick blocked), :57

M - Juleun Gilman 73 run (run failed), :41

Second Quarter

M - Delacruz 8 pass to Trent Ames (Cranson kick), 5:57

M - Ames 42 interception return (Cranson kick), :37

Third Quarter

M - Delacruz 67 pass to Cranson (Cranson kick), 8:02

M - Gilman 32 run (Cranson kick), 3:16

Fourth Quarter

M - Ames 13 run (Cranson kick), 5:23

TEAM STATISTICS 

RUSHING - Middletown 273, West Warwick 113. PASSING - Middletown 10-14-151, West Warwick 2-10-19. TOTAL OFFENSE - Middletown 424, West Warwick 132. FIRST DOWNS - Middletown 11, West Warwick 7. FUMBLES-LOST - Middletown 0-0, West Warwick 1-1. TOTAL TURNOVERS - Middletown 0, West Warwick 2.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING - Middletown - Gilman 18-235, 2 TD; Ames 5-38, TD; Cameron Miller 1-8; Dawson McGowan 1-(-8). West Warwick - James Branch 22-105; Joshua Pedus 3-(-2); Caden Denton 2-12; Nathan Corona 4-(-2).

PASSING - Middletown - Delacruz 10-14-151, 3 TD. West Warwick - Corona 2-9-19; Branch 0-1.

RECEIVING - Middletown - Cranson 3-94, 2 TD; Jordan Cruz 3-32; R.J. Wiggins 2-17; Ames 1-8, TD; Miller 1-0. West Warwick - Pedus 1-(-1); Karl Swanson 1-20.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Middletown Islanders rout West Warwick Wizards in Div. III Super Bowl