Huskies Start Fast But Fade in 8-7 Loss to Middletown

Overall, the good outweighed the bad.

The Mt. Hope High School football team suffered an 8-7 loss to Middletown High in a Rhode Island Injury Fund exhibition “half-game” Thursday night at Tiverton High School, but Coach Ron Silva said he saw more positives than negatives in his team’s performance.

“We had four or five sophomores starting tonight, so I’m not disappointed in this outcome,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll improve on it.”

The Huskies built a 7-0 advantage after the first of two 12-minute periods in Thursday’s contest before the Division 3 Islanders countered with their game-winning drive in the second chapter and added the decisive two-point conversion.

Mt. Hope had two more possessions in the game, but never advanced beyond the Middletown 47-yard line.

“After we scored our touchdown, I think our kids thought they had a victory and started playing lackadaisically,” Silva said. “Hopefully, if we take any lesson out of tonight, it will be that we have to play for all four quarters.”

What the Huskies will also take out of Thursday’s outing is that they have a potent running attack spearheaded by Joe San Martin, Aaron Booth and Jesse Raiola; a promising and exciting quarterback in sophomore Kyle Valenzuela; and an aggressive and hard-hitting defensive unit which held Middletown to a net of 9 rushing yards in 12 attempts on three non-scoring possessions.

Following an exchange of punts, Mt. Hope mustered a six-play, 53-yard scoring drive late in the opening chapter to produce its only score of the night. Raiola manufactured a 10-yard run for a first down, but it was San Martin who did most of the damage, pounding the Middletown defense on punishing rushes of 12, 10 and 6 yards before bouncing off several defenders en route to a 14-yard touchdown jaunt. San Martin also kicked the extra point to give the Huskies a 7-0 edge.

Middletown, however, rebounded three possessions later, marching 64 yards in seven plays for its lone touchdown. The Islanders coupled five running plays with a key 21-yard pass play on third down and a 17-yard scoring toss, adding the two-point conversion to assume an 8-7 advantage.

“After we scored our touchdown, I think we got back on our heels,” Silva said. “What happened next is a team (Middletown) that responded and wanted it, and a team (Mt. Hope) that tried to protect a lead.”

The Huskies reached the Islanders' 47-yard stripe on their next series after Valenzuela scrambled for 13 yards and a first down, but the drive petered out after back-to-back pass incompletions. On Mt. Hope’s final possession of the game, Valenzuela connected with Justin Martins on a 17-yard pass play to the Huskies's 49-yard line, but a holding play and a pass interception on the final play ended that threat.

Despite completing just one of seven passing attempts, Valenzuela threw the ball well and also gained 19 yards on four rushing efforts. Silva said he was comfortable with Valenzuela at the controls this season.

“Kyle has very good game control and he’ll do fine,” Silva said. “He has good command presence for a sophomore and knows our offense well.”

Silva also said he remained optimistic about the Huskies’ prospects for the coming season.

“We’ll take the good and bad out of tonight and make corrections,” Silva said. “I’m happy with what we’ve got right now.”

In the other exhibition contests played Thursday night at Tiverton, Division 3 Rogers High School of Newport upset Division 1 Barrington High School, 14-10; and Division 1 Portsmouth High overpowered Division 3 and host Tiverton, 21-0.

Mt. Hope will officially launch its 2011 regular-season schedule next Friday (Sept. 9) at 7 p.m. at Portsmouth in a non-league outing.

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