Tiverton High Football Team Defeats Moses Brown 19-6 [VIDEO]

No “big city” fears for these Tigers.

For the second time in three weekends, the football team journeyed to the capital city of Providence and emerged victorious, outlasting Moses Brown School, 19-6, Saturday in an error-filled Div. III game.

Running back Kevyon Kronsberg rushed for 189 yards on 18 carries and scored two touchdowns and quarterback Trevor Pavao completed 6 of 8 passes for 106 yards as the Tigers used big plays and a sturdy defense to contain the Quakers and to even their divisional record at 1-1. Tiverton is 2-1 overall, having defeated Hope High School of Providence in a non-league tussle two weeks ago.

With a roster shortened by injuries and illnesses, the Tigers proved to be deeper and tougher than Moses Brown in a contest which featured plenty of offense, but a minimum of scoring. While the teams unofficially combined to rack up706 yards in total offense (417 by Tiverton), produced 25 plays gaining at least 10 yards, and generated 13 plays of 20 yards or longer, they also collaborated for five turnovers and 18 penalties.

“With all the illness and injuries, we’re fighting for wins right now and we’ll take them any way we can get them,” said Tiger Coach Bob Murray. “This is a good win and it’s nice to win here. It’s always been difficult for us to win here.”

And it was no walk in the park Saturday for Tiverton, which essentially controlled the game through three quarters and before holding off a Quaker comeback in the final chapter. The Tigers coughed up the ball twice on fumbles in the second half and had two touchdowns negated by penalties, but also picked off three Moses Brown passes.

“I thought our defense played much better today than it had last week against Narragansett,” Murray said. “Moses Brown didn’t come right at us today like Narragansett did and we were able to defend them better.”

Kronsberg launched the game’s offensive fireworks when he returned the opening kickoff 65 yards to the Quaker 19-yard line and after being dropped for a 16-yard loss two plays later, sprinted 33 yards to the two-yard stripe. Tiverton, however, went backwards from there because of a penalty and three straight run losses which killed the threat.

Later in the first quarter, the Tigers marched 54 yards to paydirt in just four plays. Fueled by a major penalty against Moses Brown, Pavao’s 22-yard pass to Taylor Ekstrom and Kronsberg’s 21-yard jaunt, the visitors dented the scoreboard on Kronsberg’s 20-yard scoring romp to give them a 6-0 lead after one period.

Tiverton doubled its lead to 12-0 in the second chapter when B.K. Kiser (82 rushing yards on 5 carries despite playing ill) capped an eight-play, 75-yard progression with a 37-yard touchdown run. Late in the first half, Tiger Jack Pavao intercepted a Max Martineau aerial to throttled a Quaker threat and the guests gladly took their 12-point lead into halftime.

Tiverton fumbled away the ball early in the third quarter, but its defense stiffened and Moses Brown punted to the visitors’ 4-yard stripe. Kronsberg took a handoff from Trevor Pavao, cruised through the right side of the Quaker defense, cut back and galloped 96 yards for a touchdown with 5:10 left in the session. Nick Barboza’s extra point widened the Tiger bulge to 19-0.

Moses Brown averted a shutout in the final chapter when backup quarterback Amos Cariati (who replaced Martineau after the latter was injured) tossed an eight-yard scoring pass to Tyler Wallick with 4:39 remaining. Trevor Pavao picked off his second pass of the game with 1:22 left to kill the Quakers’ final scoring bid.

“I though Kevyon (Kronsberg) did a lot of good things today, but he’s still struggling with his conditioning because of an injury,” Murray said. “I thought Trevor Pavao had a great game, changing plays at the line and executing well.”

Tiverton returns home next Saturday at 7 p.m. to face Classical High School of Providence in a Div. III outing.

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