What stood out for Cumberland football in Thursday's win over EP? How about everything

CUMBERLAND — Riding the high of watching his out-of-nowhere sophomore sensation pop a 56-yard touchdown run that put an exclamation point on Cumberland’s win over East Providence, coach Josh Lima had to tell someone about how he was feeling at that moment.

As the players ran toward the sideline following the point-after try, Lima ran to Cumberland athletic director Marty Crowley, grabbed him by the shoulders and yelled over the raucous crowd at Tucker Field, “You have no idea how much I love the guys on this team.”

Why wouldn’t he? The Clippers came into Thursday’s game battered, still trying to get back to fully healthy, and going up against an East Providence team that just shut out the defending Division II champs. It didn’t matter. For four quarters, Cumberland, with Ty Troinao again running loose and Andrew Ray back in the lineup, dominated all facets of the game in a 33-6 win over the Townies that quickly shifted any ideas about who the favorite in D-II really is.

“We played hard,” Ray said. “We knew according to the ProJo that we were the underdogs coming into tonight, so we knew we had to play well and we had to handle the Townies.”

They certainly did, but how it happened was why the Clippers' victory was so impressive. Here’s what stood out on Thursday night.

1) Cumberland’s offensive line set the tone

The Clippers' front five isn’t going to intimidate anyone. There isn’t a 6-foot-5 monster or 300-pound behemoth among them.

What the group does is work as a unit. The five seniors — tackles Brady Gaulin and Ronald Peters, guards Aiden Fitzgerald and Ayden Goldstein and center Ethan Delgado — have more chemistry than any class Cumberland offers.

Last week they took care of East Greenwich, helping Troiano and sophomore quarterback Owen Horvath find their feet in a win. On Thursday, against a significantly bigger East Providence defensive front, the Clippers owned the trenches.

“The O-line, they open up the holes. I see ’em, we hit ’em,” Troiano said. “They do a great job.”

These five won’t earn headlines. Those are reserved for Ray, Troiano and, when he returns to the field, Evan Spencer.

But these five were a big reason why the Clippers were able to score on first-half drives of 12 plays and 75 yards and 12 plays, 67 yards, keeping the offense on the field for a stout 31:39.

“We have the line up front,” Ray said. “With them, we can do anything.”

2) 'Touchdown Ty' is a star in the making

Coming into the season, Troiano knew he could play, he just didn’t know where. With Spencer at quarterback, Ray at running back and Andrew Nocera as the human jackknife, Troiano just wanted to do whatever the team needed when he got on the field.

Now there’s no way Cumberland can take him off.

Last week Troiano ran for 140 yards and two scores in the win over East Greenwich. On Thursday, he was even better, rushing 27 times for 165 yards and two scores.

“I knew I was going to be versatile this year from the start,” Troiano said. “But if the team finds a way to use me, I’m willing to play any role and step up to it and perform.”

With Ray and Spencer’s injuries, his play has helped the Clippers run their offense similarly to last year. On Thursday, Ray handled Spencer’s duties at quarterback — something he did last fall — with Troiano again stepping into Ray’s spot on the field and producing in a way sophomores don’t usually do.

“Kid’s stepping up big time,” Ray said. “He started the year in the slot and in the last two games, he’s rushed for hundreds of yards and four touchdowns. He’s stepping up.”

How will Cumberland utilize Troiano going forward? It'll find a way. Troiano runs bigger than he is, sees the field well, works great in space and has sneaky speed. When the Clippers return to health, he might not be carrying the ball 25 times, but Cumberland will get it in his hands somehow.

“I try not to think about it,” Troiano said. “Maybe go back to slot, maybe I play wideout — but whatever it is, I’m here to play.

“I’m here to play football.”

3) Andrew Ray is ready to go

A shoulder injury sidelined Ray last week, but cleared to play he was geared up and ready to go on Thursday. The senior just didn’t know how much Lima would let him play.

Turns out it was a lot.

Horvath started the game, but Ray took over on the second possession and never left the field on offense. He looked exactly like he did last fall, playing the game at a million miles an hour as he tried to run through every single person who dared to take him down.

Ray did a lot of handing off, but he managed to make a large impact. Facing a fourth-and-4 from the Townies’ 10, Ray rolled left and brought the entire EP defense with him. He stopped, did a 180 and flipped a pass to younger brother Aidan for a 10-yard score that put Cumberland up, 13-6, with 2:37 left. After an EP turnover, Ray punched it in from the 3 that made it 20-6, giving Cumberland plenty of momentum heading into the locker room at halftime.

After the game, Ray said his shoulder felt fine and playing one side of the ball helped him keep his legs. He finished with 47 yards rushing on 11 carries, the TD pass and an impact that can’t be measured by statistics.

“We knew we had to come up and step up here,” Ray said. “We prevailed.”

4) There’s a lot of season left for East Providence

After last week’s win, the Townies were the early-season favorites in II-A. After Thursday’s loss, it’s clear there’s a lot to work on.

East Providence took Cumberland’s first punch on the chin and kept fighting. After the second, the Townies took a bad penalty that looked worse after a botched snap gave the Clippers the ball at the 8-yard line. Instead of going into the half down 13-6, they faced a 20-6 deficit.

EP made things worse by botching the second-half kickoff, but then made up for it with a goal-line stop, forcing a Ray fumble with 7:52 left in the third.

The offense continued to struggle and, after Nocera popped a 50-yard touchdown on a reverse, the fight was over.

This wasn’t the East Providence team that played last week. The Townies were missing a key part of their line, but one player wasn’t the difference. This was a team loss and to get back on track, it’ll take the entire team to do so.

The Townies will look to get back on track next week when they host Cranston West and expect a much different performance than what happened on Thursday.

5) Cumberland is looking ahead — just not too far

With the win, the Clippers instantly earn the title of the favorite in II-A. They’ll have it until at least Saturday, when Burrillville hosts Mount Pleasant. The winner of that may take it over, but Cumberland doesn’t care.

“We just think about the next week — everything is ahead of us,” Troiano said. “We know we have Super Bowl potential this year, but we try to take it week-by-week and take on the next opponent every week.”

Next week it's a game at Burrillville in what could be a monumentally huge game in the third week of the season as the Clippers try to show everyone they are, in fact, a Super Bowl contender.

“We believed that from the start,” Ray said. “We’re just going to keep rolling week by week.”

CUMBERLAND 33, EAST PROVIDENCE 6

First quarter

C – Ty Troiano 5 run (run fails), 5:17

Second quarter

EP – Jacob Duarte 1 run (kick blocked), 9:08

C- Aidan Ray 10 pass from Andrew Ray (Dylan Pichel kick), 2:37

C – Ray 3 run (Pichel kick), :33

Third quarter

C – Andrew Nocera 50 run (Pichel kick), 2:07

Fourth quarter

C – Troiano 56 run (kick blocked), 10:01

TEAM STATISTICS

RUSHING – East Providence 23-86, Cumberland 45-276. PASSING – East Providence 5-11-33, Cumberland 4-4-43. TOTAL OFFENSE – East Providence 119, Cumberland 319. FIRST DOWNS – East Providence 7, Cumberland 13. FUMBLES-LOST – East Providence 3-1, Cumberland 1-1. TOTAL TURNOVERS – East Providence 1, Cumberland 1. PENALTIES – East Providence 4-47, Cumberland 2-20. PUNTS – East Providence 3-96, Cumberland 2-68. TIME OF POSSESSION – East Providence 16:24, Cumberland 31:39

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: East Providence – Isaac Fox 4-25; Steven Clark 7-23; Jacob Duarte 7-19, TD, fumble; Lucas Sant Cruz 4-11; Justin Jardine 1-8. Cumberland – Ty Troiano 27-165, 2 TDs; Andrew Nocera 1-50, TD; Andrew Ray 11-47, TD, fumble; Emmanuel Reyes 6-14.

PASSING: East Providence – Duarte 5-11-33. Cumberland – Owen Horvath 3-3-20; Andrew Ray 1-1-10, TD.

RECEIVING: East Providence – Cameron Evora 3-20; Clark 1-6; Fox 1-5. Cumberland – Nocera 1-13; Aidan Ray 1-10, TD; Troiano 2-5.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Providence Journal East Providence Cumberland Division II football Rueb