The Hawks now move on to the second round, where they will face North Kingstown on their home field. As the #3 seed, the Skippers received a bye and were idle in the first round.
Let's hope that some of the momentum our guys have built up here late in the season carries through to Friday night's game at NK. Let's move to Round #3.
Not only did our football team continue its push through the regular schedule with a convincing 41-21 victory over Portsmouth on Friday night at Hayden Stadium, but the Hawks' soccer team pre-empted that contest with a 2-0 victory over Woonsocket to secure the #6 seed in the upcoming state playoffs. Then, as the above tweet points out, the cross-country guys and the JV soccer team did their part as well.Great @HendrickenHawks sports day: @BHHSXCTF takes vars. Class A and JV state champs; JV soccer advances to state semis. #gohawks
— Bishop Hendricken (@HendrickenHawks) October 27, 2013
Hawks escape The Reservation with narrow win over La Salle in Class A race http://t.co/7U7cL0hYsi
— Milesplit RI (@MileSplitRI) October 27, 2013
Great performances in the JV races today, the JV A race was won by junior Jared Boulanger in 17:11,followed by Tom McMahon and Mike Kiernan
— BHHS T&F / XC (@BHHSXCTF) October 26, 2013
JV B race won by junior Wally Fitzhugh. Hawks took 11 of the top 12 spots, including a 4th place finish by freshmen Jeff Venter.
— BHHS T&F / XC (@BHHSXCTF) October 26, 2013
Couple these performances and victories in heated competition with the tremendous improvements from the little guys during the Freshman states this past week, and it would seem Coaches Doyle, Brennan, and Lourenco have a lot about which they can smile, both for the immediate and longer-term future. A lot of incredible races from today's meet. Feels great to get the class A meet done. One step closer to the ultimate goal #statemeet
— BHHS T&F / XC (@BHHSXCTF) October 26, 2013
Next up: Rhode Island State championship. Sunday at Ponaganset. Race is scheduled for 2:15. Maybe we can get @HawksMangate to show?
— BHHS T&F / XC (@BHHSXCTF) October 26, 2013
Great Homecoming weekend all the way around, guys. Let's see if we can wrap the entire fall sports season in Green-and-Gold.
Niko Spentzos of The Network sat down with Coach J for a brief interview prior to the season's final game:
Stay with The Network for coverage as the state playoffs get underway.
The Hawks went for two after their first score, perhaps anticipating a close game; the conversion failed, resulting in an early 7-6 lead for the Patriots.
After that, an effective word to describe the Hawks' assuming control of the game is methodical. While it was evident that Portsmouth is a very good team and had no intention of being pushed around, the nature of the Hawks' discipline and their relentless attack on both sides of the ball was, over the longer course of the game, simply too much for the Patriots to withstand. As pointed out, the offense was led by the running of Remy Blue. In addition to that early touchdown, he also crossed the goal line on runs of 41 yards - ...45 yards -
...and, on a play reminiscent of the first one of the second half last Friday night against Cranston East (Gary Gibbs' 60-yard run to the house), Remy took the handoff on the first play of the second half last night and galloped 63 yards to the house himself:
Gary Gibbs also turned in some quality running for the Hawks during the game, and Matt Duffie even turned in a nifty 31-yard run:
The Patriots did put 21 points up on the Hawks, but the stellar defense that we've had the opportunity to watch as it has quickly evolved from week-to-week also came up big when it mattered most. The defense stuffed Sewall when he attempted a run around end - ...Lee Moses laid himself out in spectacular fashion for one of his two interceptions (in addtion to his 31-yard TD reception) - ...and the defense came up with another takeaway on a fumble recovery.
All in all, with the Homecoming victory and the reasonably convincing nature of it, everyone at Hayden Stadium last night who is a part of the Hendricken community went home pretty happy. One would think, however, that Coach Croft and the rest of his staff are probably going to work the team hard in an effort to clean up the number of penalties for which our guys have been flagged over the course of the last two games.
Other than that, the Express to Four still appears to be on full steam ahead.
The Hawks are off next week, giving our players and The Network staff a much-needed Friday night off.
Next up?
Another of the top teams in Division I - the Barrington Eagles.
The Network will be there.
Hendricken freshmen finish 3rd at the state meet - see results attached pic.twitter.com/FxqXQq3GDj
— BHHS T&F / XC (@BHHSXCTF) October 21, 2013
One of the old expressions that we've all heard from time to time throughout our lives is, "what a difference a day makes"....or something to that effect.
In the case of our freshman XC runners, it's clearly "what a difference six weeks or so makes."
The average improvement for the whole team was 1:52 over a 4k course. Big improvements from Dario Smith, Stephen Treml, and Brandon Selvidio
— BHHS T&F / XC (@BHHSXCTF) October 21, 2013
Coaches Brennan and Lourenco were ecstatic with the performances of their up-and-coming runners in this past Monday's freshman state meet, as our guys not only finished third overall in the meet - competing against high-quality teams such as LaSalle, Smithfield, and East Greenwich - but they also shaved nearly two full minutes off the collective time that they posted in the Injury Fund competition at the beginning of September. Jeff Venter, Anthony Lanni, Stephen Treml, Russel Hadfield, Daniel Ruggiero, Michael Shaw, and Max Waite were outstanding, as each of them finished in or around the top 50.
Here's a look at the individual times for all our runners, in addition to a visual comparison of just how far the young Hawks have come in such a short period of time: Great from the young hawks... How great? Compare their times from injury fund 2 months ago on the same course. http://t.co/J8Op477Ryg #work
— BHHS T&F / XC (@BHHSXCTF) October 21, 2013
RESULTS FROM THE INJURY FUND COMPETITION
RESULTS FROM THE FRESHMAN STATES
INDIVIDUAL RESULTS FROM THE FRESHMAN STATES
There's still more season to go, but the future sure does look bright.
Since the beginning of the season, many Rhode Island high school football pundits around the state pointed to this game as one of those with serious playoff, if not Super Bowl, implications come the month of December. The three-time defending state champions Hawks - with many returning players from last year's team and on a mission to capture a record fourth title in a row - against the Cranston East Thunderbolts, an extremely talented team that made some real noise last year before bowing out in the state semi-final to the Hawks.
The game had all the makings of a real battle, each team trying to send a message to the other. The supremely-confident Hawks with their top-rated defense in the State, against an all-out scoring machine, with the 'Bolts coming into the game averaging an incomprehensible 46 points per game.
One team got to sent a message. The scoreboard tells the story.
In many sports, we often hear analysts referring to "crooked numbers", a reference to a development in a game that permanently changes the course and direction of a contest. In baseball, it might be a seven-run inning; in football, it might be numbers or statistics such as these:
1)in the first half, the Hawks yielded a total of 46 yards of offense to a team that had been making a mockery of their opponents, averaging the aforementioned 46 points per game;
2)Remington Blue, a running back who is seemingly so difficult to bring down, so strong, and so fast that one was forced to wonder if it were actually his abilities or East's defense experiencing serious tackling issues, rushed for 187 yards in the first half, after rushing for a total of 118 yards in last week's win over Cranston West;
3)the Hawks racked up at least four rushing plays of 30 yards or more, rushes that either ended in touchdowns themselves or altered the course of a specific drive that resulted in a touchdown. The most electric of those plays was Remy Blue's 77-yard gallop to the house, which can be see right here:
Remy also crossed the goal line on a six-yard score: Other touchdowns were scored by Terrance Gibbs, on runs of one and three yards, and Gary Gibbs, who, for all intents and purposes, put an end to any hopes to which the 'Bolts might still have been grasping on the first play of the second half: As mentioned, Terrance scored twice, in addition to providing the Hawks with some good tough running throughout the second half. One of his touchdowns and some of his other ground work can be seen right here: While the offensive output was impressive, it was, however, largely the stifling effort of a defense that is growing more and more confident with each passing week. At one point during the second quarter, senior Mike Scarcella came up with a crucial sack that essentially put an end to a promising East drive:
As alluded to at the top of the article, this was one of the more anticipated schoolboy football matchups of the season. As such, some of the state's mainstream media were in attendance, including WPRI-12 and the Providence Journal. The Journal's photo gallery of the game can be seen here.
And, as is always the case here at The Network, our most recent broadcast event can always be seen in the Ustream viewer at the very top of the site. In this case, it's the entirety of the second half of last night's game against East. The first half, along with all the rest of our broadcast work, can be seen by clicking our Ustream link at the bottom of the page.
Next up for our guys is the homecoming game, and we're hoping for a huge turnout Friday night against Portsmouth, traditionally a very strong program and always a tough out. Let's pack Hayden Stadium and support the Hawks on The Road to Four.
A little hardware coming home with us to warwick! pic.twitter.com/ZnWCLYKBq4
— BHHS T&F / XC (@BHHSXCTF) October 12, 2013
There's an old expression in the cross-country community that says, "Champions are made when no one is watching." While that may not be entirely true when it comes to the Hendricken Cross Country program (which is practically legendary), we here at The Network aim to give as many people as possible the opportunity to watch - or at least follow along more frequently - when those champions are being made.
The past three weekends have been very strong for the XC Hawks, as their performances in New Hampshire, North Carolina, and now most recently at the Manhattan Invitational speak for themselves. This past weekend in Manhattan the Hawks were once again one of the best performing teams in the entire field, as our varsity, JV, sophomore, and freshman teams consistently crossed the finish line with all the top groups in the competition.
Our varsity runners were the "E" race winners with 74 points, followed by St. Anthony's and Lowell. The Hawks were led senior Colin Tierney's outstanding performance, as he registered the second-fastest time ever run by a Hendricken athlete on the Manhattan course. The varsity squad, in fact, recorded the fastest average time of all the varsity races, with the exception of the Eastern States Championships. Our top JV team finished second in their race and were led by senior Patrick Gower.
Varsity E race winners. Great job men! pic.twitter.com/9OMypUY8oI
— BHHS T&F / XC (@BHHSXCTF) October 12, 2013
The younger guys also acquitted themselves very nicely. The sophomore team finished second, behind only Highland Valley. Domenic Parlato came in third in the race with a fantastic time of 13:48, and he was followed by Tom McMahon at 14:03. On the freshmen front, the "A" team came in 4th in their race with a total of 158 points, and the "B" team finished 11th in the 18-team field and were led by Dario Smith.
Next up for the cross country teams is the championship competitions, as the freshman will be competing in the state championships on October 21st, and the varsity runners will be competing in the Class A championships on October 26th. It's a pretty good bet that we'll have more hardware coming our way by the end of the month.
#GOHAWKS
Anchors Cam Brennan and Stone Freeman continued to be the pros that they are, bringing sound analysis, research, and knowledge to the production. The voice of the basketball Hawks, Johnathan Feeny, provided stellar assistance by working the social media angle throughout the course of the game, passing along any score updates from around the state via the Tweetdeck service and by keeping all followers of The Network on Twitter and Facebook up-to-date on each of the game's developments. Max Zweiner also chipped into the production with invaluable sideline assistance by utilizing The Network's Instagram link to record some great moments, which can be seen in this account of the game. Official team statistician Ben Macksoud also was on stand-by to contribute via Instagram if called upon. It all went soundly enough that Coach Dan Brennan texted to us during the game that he was able to watch the game from his hotel lobby in Manhattan. All involved did a great job.
Now, as for the game....
Much like the Hawks' season-opening Division I game at South Kingstown, the Hawks knew that they had everything that they could handle after one half of play. In fact, any objective viewer of the game would have called the game an even struggle by intermission, as the Hawks held a slim 7-3 lead.
Once again, however, much like that South Kingstown game, the Hawks slowly but surely asserted themselves over the course of the second half and won going away, 33-10 - though it should be noted that with about nine minutes remaining in the third quarter, the Hawks led by only three, 13-10.
No one at the game - fans of either team or any of the Hendricken players (who always take each opponent seriously) - should have been surprised, as the Falcons went to the final seconds last Friday night against LaSalle in a game played at Cranston Stadium before losing a tough one, 22-21. With the loss to the Hawks, the Falcons now drop to 1-4 on the season, but that is as deceiving a record as there possibly can be. They are much better than their record indicates.
As for our guys, the train that they're attempting to ride to RI schoolboy history - a fourth consecutive State Super Bowl title - remains steadily and smoothly on the rails. All-State running back Remy Blue continued his weekly game-changing running act, rushing 12 times for 118 yards, including touchdown runs of 41 and 35 yards. The first of those two gallops can be seen right here:
Quarterback Pat Gill kept the offense sure and steady throughout the course of the night and contributed with a 57-yard scoring strike to Lee Moses and a 16-yard TD run for himself. Running back Gary Gibbs contributed the other Hawks' touchdown on a seven-yard run.
As the Falcons' ten points indicates, the Hawks' defense was tough over the course of the entire game. Two outstanding plays can be seen right here:
In
case you missed it, the entire second half of the game can still be seen right here on The Network, at the top of the site.
Up next for the Hawks are the Thunderbolts of Cranston East, who, along with the Hawks, were one of the pre-season favorites to go all the way. The 'Bolts walloped East Providence last night, 48-12. The Hawks will travel to Cranston Stadium to face East next Friday night at 7pm. At the very least this is a potential preview of a playoff matchup, if not a Super Bowl matchup; of course, there's always our archrival LaSalle who will always be in the mix, and they await our guys for another showdown on November 15th on Academy Avenue.
The Network will be at Cranston Stadium next Friday night. Let's travel well and support our guys in Game #5.
Course run in the bag. #gohawks pic.twitter.com/ecwm0udwpm
— BHHS T&F / XC (@BHHSXCTF) October 4, 2013
Last week, the runners for all three of our teams took home a collection of team and individual awards from their competition at the Manchester Invitational in New Hampshire. Yesterday, the Hawks' Harriers stayed the course against some of the top runners from the entire east coast at the Great American Cross Country Festival in Cary, North Carolina.
In The Race of Champions Event, the Hawks finished 6th overall as a team and were led by
senior Colin Tierney, who turned in the fastest effort for RI boys by finishing 19th overall at 15:31. He was followed by fellow Hawks junior Michael Potter (34th at 15:49.8) and sophomore Avery Ingegneri (55that 16:12.6). The junior varsity A team took home the first-place team trophy in their event, led by senior Colin Manning, who checked in at 17:09 and in 2nd place overall.
Prior to the Hawks' heading out for North Carolina, the Providence Journal produced some nice coverage of our runners.
Great @projo coverage of @BHHSXCTF. Team on the way to N.C. for big races Saturday - good luck to our guys. http://t.co/47jRgGrvX8 #gohawks
— Bishop Hendricken (@HendrickenHawks) October 4, 2013
Some significant tweets from Coach Brennan during Saturday's race:
Some great times at Great American.... http://t.co/gXPQQjdohS
— Milesplit RI (@MileSplitRI) October 5, 2013
JV team champions! pic.twitter.com/LiTvbFPdNL
— BHHS T&F / XC (@BHHSXCTF) October 5, 2013
Senior Colin manning finishes 2nd overall in the JV A race with a unofficial time of 17:09
— BHHS T&F / XC (@BHHSXCTF) October 5, 2013
Coach Brennan had this to say at the conclusion of the race: On our way home after a killer race. 90degree heat took a toll towards the end but our young men ran great today. Next up- manhattan.
— BHHS T&F / XC (@BHHSXCTF) October 5, 2013
The - um - 'cross country tour' continues.
Several of the scores can be seen here.
Next up for the Hawks is a home game, this coming Friday night, October 11th, against Cranston West. Kickoff is at 7pm. Coach Croft, his entire staff, and the entire team no doubt expect a tough one against the Falcons, as they gave archrival LaSalle all they could handle last night, eventually losing a tough one, 22-21 to the Rams.
And, barring any of the early-season technical issues - which have been driving this writer to distraction - The Network will broadcast the game, live, here on the site.