Warrior mentality: Pineyro, Henderson key Narragansett rout of Ayer-Shirley

BALDWINVILLE – In its best performance of the season—so far— Narragansett Regional, routed visiting Ayer-Shirley at Stuart Field Friday night, 42-14, and lifted its record to 4-2.

Senior running back Joey Pineyro, behind solid front-line blocking, scored three touchdowns, and senior quarterback Corey Henderson ran for a touchdown and passed for another, leading the Warriors, who bounced back a week after a disappointing loss to Bay Path.

“A great bounce-back game,” said Narragansett coach Wes Flis. “Our seniors especially came out and got the job done, playing real hard.”

A senior captain, Pineyro, a 5-10, 185-pounder, who also plays middle linebacker, credited his up-front teammates for creating daylight under the Friday night lights.

Paving the way for Pineyro’s big night was the superb blocking by the Warriors’ offensive line of Mike Braccini, Ryan Anderson, Brayden Richards, Tyler Orcutt and Collin Smith.

Ayer-Shirley hung in early, but the Warriors, fired up in front of a big home crowd, pulled away and put this one in the win column.

In the long series between the teams, which began in 1969, the Warriors notched their 32nd win against the Panthers, who have won 23 of the matchups.

Ayer-Shirley, now 0-6, entered and exited Stuart Field winless, but the still-formidable Panthers have lost three games by a touchdown or less. Understandably, the Warriors, to be sure, did not take the visitors lightly.

In fact, after Narragansett grabbed an 8-0 lead early in the first quarter, the Panthers came back and tied the game four minutes later.

The Warriors struck first when a march downfield keyed by Pineyro’s bruising rushes for big gains ended with Henderson, on a keeper, zipping off tackle and making a nice cut in the secondary on his way to a 21-yard TD. He then tossed a two-point conversion pass to Pineyro.

The Panthers answered with an 18-yard TD pass from speedy and elusive senior quarterback James Gauntlett to sophomore wide receiver Manny Gambino.

Heading into the second quarter tied 8-8, the Warriors posted a couple of touchdowns to take a 22-8 lead into halftime.

First came Pineyro’s 15-yard touchdown run and Jacob Starziak’s PAT with 9:26 left, followed by Henderson’s TD pass of 12 yards to talented freshman receiver Jordan Baumann, who beat the Ayer-Shirley defense and was all alone to gather in the throw in the right corner of the end zone.

After intermission, Pineyro, on only the third play of the second half, raced 50 yards for his second touchdown, shaking off a couple of tacklers and sprinting all the way for the 28-8 lead.

“I broke through the line and there was just their safety in front of me and then I got by him and really started moving my legs after that,” explained Pineyro of his long TD run.

“We stepped on the throttle and put the game away early in the third quarter,” said Flis. “We avoided what we did against Ware in the second half when we came out flat.”

Praising Pineyro, Flis added, “All year long, Joey has been our go-to guy for five or six yards and tonight he really ran well. He ran over and through kids in this one.”

An Ayer-Shirley fumble and Warrior recovery led to another third-quarter score by the Warriors, a 9-yard blast by Pineyro, upping the lead to 35-8 following Starziak’s point-after kick.

The Warriors scored their final TD of the game late in the third quarter when junior Kayden McCullough, with great instincts, cut in front of a receiver and intercepted an Ayer-Shirley pass and raced 40 yards all the way to the end zone, lifting Narragansett to a 41-8 lead before Starziak booted another extra point.

“Jacob really worked hard this summer on his kicking, and it’s showing now,” Flis said.

The Panthers got a little closer with 8:46 left in the game on a 1-yard touchdown run by junior Bobby Manchester. The extra-point kick failed.

“We have Quabbin on Saturday for our Homecoming Game,” said Flis. “Every week we try to focus the guys on the next game, so that’s what we’re doing now. We’ll try to take care of business against Quabbin and then we have Gardner on the schedule and they're a very good team.”

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Seniors Pineyro, Henderson lead way as Narragansett tops Ayer-Shirley