CRANSTON – As the clock at Cranston Stadium ticked down to Davies’ victory over Narragansett, so did these fans and these players on the sidelines who hosed down coach Henry Cabral to celebrate the impossible dream.
Only problem? But the Patriots did not snap the ball and drop to their knee. It is not a problem because after you wait one year for something like this, than another second is not going to harm anyone.
It was the end of the year that Davies started its football and this one, although the team did not finish it in rejoicing after losing to the Division IV Super Bowl. It took a year to replace it as the Patriots, using lessons learned from both the season and it’s defeat, began a season no one will forget. For the first time in program history, Davies secured the program’s first championship in 2024 through winning, finishing and maintaining one’s composure in pressure situations as Davies shone Saturday to defeat Narragansett 28-25 in the Division IV championship in the RIIL Football State Championships Presented by Ortho Rhode Island.
“We’ve been working hard this whole year,” said Ziahair Gibau, who rushed for 164 yards and two TDs to capture MVP honours. They have been doubting us all the season. We just had to come out here and fight and show people we’ve got that dog in us.
“It’s very surreal,” Jomar Lopes of Davies added who had two touchdown catches. “We knew the end goal at the end of the day and that’s what we wanted. We wanted to win.”
What Davies had been doing this season most effectively was learning to win.
Last year was easy. All season long and throughout the playoffs the Patriots “hid” while rising star, Daniel Rose, who amassed 2,000 yards rushing and was voted the Providence Journal Offensive Player of the Year, went about doing things no other D-IV team could.
This fall’s buildup, though, can be primarily traced back to last year’s loss – the one that dealt a crushing blow to the program.
“Last year Daniel was scoring so many goals and getting assists and it enabled other kids to develop,” Cabral noted. As one of the team, the day we lost we said that we would come back to this place again. We want to be here each year and particularly after what happened last year.
In the last year we did not believe that we could complete a game. This year we did.”
Last year Davies would turn to Rose in crunch time. In this year, each player came out to try and make a play at one or two times in a game. It was Gibau or Lopes, freshman quarterback Tyrell Barros, Ben Bin or any player. There would be more pain if Jamaal Andrade, having scored two extra points, had not contributed to the final victory at the quarterfinal stage. Last year, it might have. This year, things changed.
“We were always in a tough game,” Gibau said. In front of the worst team in our league, loses always works out that it was a good game. We just fight.”
Saturday’s fight was the most appealing. There was no team on fire in Division IV than Narragansett, an up-tempo team that had some of the craziest formations and perhaps the wrestler running back that scored baskets during every clash.
Davies didn’t play scared. It took advantage of a fortunate bounce, when a tipped pass by Barros ended up in the hands of Lopes and turned into a 67-yard touchdown 1:43 into the game. The Patriots closed the quarter with the ball and covered 49 yards in 10 plays, finishing with a 7-yard Gibau run with 9:23 left the second quarter which provided a 15-0 lead.
“Of course we had confidence because we had been here before,” Lopes said. “We were expecting to win today, having defeated this team before and therefore understood how we had to approach this game.”
Narragansett replied immediately to that threat, however, with a 64-yard touchdown run by the state wrestling champion Jack Giannetto. The Mariners got an onside kick and a chance to equalize and then came back down the field and got another big play through air and then Matt Timpson went 41-yard again with Chris Winn.
Leading 15-13 at the break, Davies understood where it has to go.
“Narragansett uses big play breaks. That is how they get you – off big plays,” Gibau said. “We had to put the clamps on some of the big plays.”
“The mindset was just to man up and hit all day – and stop the pass,” Lopes said. “I believe that we did that well.”
Certainly, the wind was a factor sidelining this team, but it is doubtful this windy conditions would have been an issue for Barca quite so much in subsequent games of this tournament. The teams scored with home run times being 7:47 for a Gibau run and 0:59 for a Timpson to Alex Hayes pass – but Davies never blinked. They were prepared for the punch that would come back at them.
Pushed up 22-19, Davies gave the knockout blow.
The Patriots have always provided fun nicknames for trick plays and this year they had “Family Matters” – a joke referring to taking personalities of different members of a family: nuts uncle.
Statistically on third and 18 at the Narragansett 29 it was ready for Davies to let it fly. After the direct snap, Gibau passed to Lopes who was a back in the backfield and headed right. Barros walked to the line as a receiver and moved laterally and then took a hand off from Lopes.
Meanwhile, this was happening Edgar Melendez was running from the left side of the field towards the right corner. He had the space and Barros made a good through to make the score.
There were 11:08 left and the 28-19 lead was hardly safe, but Davies to prevent the score staying there. Narragansett got one more score on the board with 3:52 left and while the Patriots didn’t run out the clock the defense came through and got the stop it needed.
Lopes said: “We weren’t really nervous as a team.” “We knew we were going to get this dub and that is why that is what we did.”
“Now we can be at the end of games and not have nerves,” said Cabral, the only head coach the program has had in its six seasons. “A few years ago, usually when playing, we used to loose those fourth quarter battles.
‘We don’t lose those battles anymore’. We get stronger. That’s the kids working every day in practice.
One year after becoming the first program in the Super Bowl, Davies made more in history by winnings its first title. The Patriots continue to have no permanent home ground, and while my enjoy their regular season home games at Pierce Field in East Providence, they had their playoff games at Max Read Field in Pawtucket.
But the team has their group of coaches who have a concern. It also has players who are willing to do all it possibly takes for the team to triumph on the ground.
And now, they have a title to show what the work can get you.
“I knew that if we managed, then they would come,” the director of OSS Cabral added. That is the thing with our school- our kids are fully committed to things when they have invested in them and they did. This can be done in a lot of places, but you just have to work hard for it, I said to myself. Well my kids have done it, the coaches have done it and we have invested a lot of time and effort here.
‘They should be Division IV champions’. Many of these children are from a rough nig of the region, but when you remind them they have something to defend and be proud of, they try.”
Davies 28, Narragansett 25
First quarter
- D – Jomar Lopes 67 pass from Tyrell Barros (Jamaal Andrade kick), 10:17
Second quarter
- D – Ziahair Gibau 4 run (Edgar Melendez from Barros), 9:23
- N – Jack Giannetto 64 run (Alec Hayes kick), 9:03
- N – Chris Winn 41 pass from Matt Timpson (pass fails), 6:24
Third quarter
- D – Gibau 47 run (Andrade kick), 11:39
- N – Hayes 59 pass from Timpson (pass fails), 11:12
Fourth quarter
- D – Melendez 29 pass from Barros (pass fails), 11:08
- N – Owen Oakes 12 pass from Timpson (kick fails), 3:52
TEAM STATISTICS
RUSHING – Davies 44-234, Narragansett 28-117. PASSING – Davies 3-7-117, Narragansett 10-21-195. TOTAL OFFENSE – Davies 351, Narragansett 306. FIRST DOWNS – Davies 16, Narragansett 10. FUMBLES-LOST – Davies 4-1, Narragansett 2-2. TOTAL TURNOVERS – Davies 2, Narragansett 2. PENALTIES – Davies 9-66, Narragansett 4-20. PUNTS-YARDS – Davies 2-57, Narragansett 2-61. TIME OF POSSESSION – Davies 28:48, Narragansett 19:12.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Davies – Ziahair Gibau 28-164, 2 TDs, fumble; Edgar Melendez 3-34; Davian Lopes 5-17; Jomar Lopes 2-12; Collin Borden 6-11, Team 2-(-2). Narragansett – Jack Giannetto 12-132. TD, fumble; Javon Sampson-O’Donnell 5-5; Owen Oakes 1-(-4); Matt Timpson 10-(-15), fumble.
PASSING: Davies – Tyrell Barros 3-6-117, 2 TDs, INT; Lopes 0-1-0. Narragansett – Timpson -10-21-195.
RECEIVING: Davies – Lopes 2-88, TD; Melendez 1-29, TD. Narragansett – Chris Winn 3-65, TD; Alex Hayes 1-59, TD; Giannetto 2-44; Oakes 3-27, TD; Dusten Hamelin 1-0.
