Portsmouth High Football Team Defeats Tiverton 21-0 in Injury Fund Game [VIDEO]

Don’t panic Tiger fans – it was just a scrimmage.

asserted its dominance from the opening kickoff Thursday night and went on to register a 21-0 victory over host in the finale of three Rhode Island Injury Fund “half-game” exhibitions.

Portsmouth sophomore Matt Sewall ran back the opening kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown and later returned a pass interception 28 yards for another score – both in the first of two 12-minute periods – as the big, quick and deep Division 1 Patriots simply overpowered the gutty Division 3 Tigers in the first dress rehearsal for both squads this season. Tiverton Coach Bob Murray said he was not displeased by his club’s performance.

“It was just a scrimmage and we came here tonight to work on certain things,” Murray said. “I think we ran two plays on offense and we’re just not ready for a lot of things right now. But we did some good things at the end and we’ll move on from here.”

The Tigers were especially pleased by the physical running of fullback Jacob Kapstein (returning after suffering a season-ending injury one year ago), the passing combination of quarterback Trevor Pavao to Josh Pereira and a staunch display for their defensive unit, which yielded just one touchdown.

Sewall, however, put Tiverton on notice that it would be a painful experience Thursday night when he snared the opening kickoff at the Portsmouth 4-yard line, followed a bevy of blockers down the right sideline, and simply ran away from the Tigers en route to a scintillating 96-yard scoring jaunt. Daniel Thorpe kicked the extra point to give the Pats a quick 7-0 lead.

“We’re not ready for special teams yet,” Murray said. “We haven’t spent a lot of practice time on them.”

Later in the opening chapter, Sewall (playing defensive back) picked off a Pavao pass in the right flat and once again out-legged all Tigers to the end zone on a 28-yard scamper. Thorpe’s second conversion boot extended the Portsmouth lead to 14-0.

Although Kapstein (unofficially 62 yards on eight rushing tries) ran a nifty fake punt for 28 yards and a first down early in the second period, Tiverton’s offense again stalled and punted to the Portsmouth 16-yard stripe. From there, the Patriots marched 84 yards in 13 plays, fueled by four Bobby Chavous pass completions along with effective runs. Halfback Austin Szczepaniak carried it across the goal line from one yard out and Thorpe’s third extra point widened the gap to 21-0.

Against Portsmouth’s second-team defense, the Tigers drove 60 yards in seven plays to the Patriot 30-yard line before time expired. In that sequence, Pavao completed passes to Kapstein and Taylor Ekstrom and running back Matt DeLeo carried four times for 28 yards.

Murray said the Tigers’ defensive unit played respectably, but that their offensive line needs to improve.

“I thought our defensive line and secondary played decently, but our offensive line did not block well,” he said. “Portsmouth is a very good football team and we’re not a match for them right now.”

In the other exhibition contests played Thursday night, Division 3 Rogers High School of Newport upset Division 1 Barrington High, 14-10; and Division 3 Middletown High School nipped Division 2-B Mount Hope High of Bristol, 8-7.

Tiverton will officially launch its 2011 regular-season schedule next Saturday, Sept. 10 at 1:30 p.m. at Division 4 Hope High School of Providence in a non-league match.

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