By STEVE MAZZONE

Sports writer

WOONSOCKET - That lingering sour taste from last year just may turn sweet by next weekend.
Or perhaps it has already.
On a wet Saturday afternoon, senior Travis Gagne turned in a spectacular performance, scoring twice and rushing for 226 yards as Woonsocket High blanked visiting Burrillville, 14-0, at Barry Field.
The win by the Villa Novans would appear to have sewed up a postseason berth. Woonsocket upped its record to 4-1 in Division II-A with only two regular season games left on the slate. Even if it loses those tilts, which includes a Friday night date with winless Warwick Veterans, it would seem that the Novans have punched their ticket.
Right now only Tolman (2-3) and Mount Hope (3-2) could match the Villa Novans record  by the end of the season should the Maroon and White not take care of business the next two weeks. Should that happen, the advantage looks to be slanted in the Novans’ direction considering they have beaten both squads this year.
The math seems to be in the Villa Novans’ favor, but head coach Carnell Henderson is not celebrating quite yet. He learned his lesson last year when Woonsocket finished in a five-way tie for first in the league, but was eliminated from postseason play by some complicated tie-breaking formula.
“We can’t clinch a playoff spot until they tell me I’m in the playoffs,” Henderson said. “After what happened last year, I’m not good enough to do the math and read the rules. I’ll wait until they tell me I’m in.”
Whether it makes it or not, Woonsocket has manufactured a strong season so far after being told in 2008-09 that it wasn’t among the top four teams in the league to qualify for the extra season.
“You look at our senior leaders and they were key players for our season last year,”: Henderson said. “You talk about Jordan Barr, you talk about Travis Gagne, you talk about Luis Heredia, you talk about Shawn Harris, you talk about Brian Doire. Those guys were on that team last year that felt like we were slighted. They worked hard all off-season, came back with a point to prove that we deserved some extra play and we are looking forward to it this year.”
As for Saturday’s affair Burrillville (1-4), which was officially ousted from the postseason with the setback, managed to keep the Villa Novans out of the comfort zone until late in the fourth quarter.
But the game was clearly dominated by the Villa Novans, who amassed 269 yards offensively to just 109 for the Broncos. Led by the athletic Gagne, Woonsocket was particular effective on the ground with 248 of that total.
On the defensive end, Woonsocket limited the Broncos to just 29 yards rushing. With three bad snaps, a pair of fumbles and suffering two of three sacks in the contest, the Broncos had minus three yards in the initial half.
By no coincidence, that’s when Woonsocket did all its scoring with Gagne scoring twice in the second quarter.
“They were much better than us, and they played better than us,” said Burrillville coach Gennaro Ferraro. “They were better than us. We made a ton of mistakes. (Woonsocket) runs hard, they compete for the football, and they played better than us.”
While Gagne was creating havoc with his running game, Woonsocket couldn’t quite get things going in the first quarter, despite holding a noticeable edge over the Broncos. After a 47-yard scamper by Gagne to get the ball to the five-yard line, Burrillville was able to thwart the Villa Novans’ attempt on all four tries.
It wasn’t until there was less than eight minutes until halftime when the Villa Novans were finally able to crack the end zone with Gagne scampering into the end zone on a 32-yard pay dirt. His run capped off a quick four-play drive that began on the Broncos’ 43 and was set up thanks to an interception by Rafael Rodriguez on a beautiful spiral by BHS quarterback Roger Blanchard to Brent Saritelli on the right sidelines. Rodriguez managed to get hold of the ball just before it reached Saritelli’s waiting hands.
Less than two minutes later, Gagne would score again. On their 35 after the ensuing kickoff, the Broncos were their own worse enemies in giving the pigskin back to their opponent, twice being drawn back on bad snaps, the last proving the most costly. On a fourth and long from the 22-yard line, Burrillville elected to punt but the snap to kicker Tyler Kimatian went array and was recovered by Barr at the 6. On the first play from scrimmage, and with 5:35 left before the break, Gagne hustled in for the score.
“I think Travis Gagne is a workhorse,” said Henderson, whose talented back has about 1,000 yards for the season. “It was against this Burrillville team last year when we first played him. He was kind of hidden in the backfield with (graduating senior) Tyrell Nealy and Jordan Barr. He was the third back. In the game against Burrillville we went to an I-formation and after watching Travis on film I said we have to play this kid.”
Woonsocket was not with out its flaws. The Novans had 10 penalties in the game for 90 yards. They appeared to get affected by it the most in the second half where five yellow flags were thrown for 55 yards.
That was one of the things Henderson hopes to clear up as the season winds down. As for now, the focus is on Friday’s match-up with Warwick, which has scored just six points this fall and occupies the cellar in the division at 0-5.
“If you look at the film today, you’ll see there is tons of room for improvement,” Henderson said. “Week after week, we have to get our guys mentally as well as physically ready to play football. Like I said, if the playoffs is in our horizon, we have to be well-tuned by then because it’s won and done at that level. We think we have the skill and the talent to be able to compete, but execution has to be flawless when you get to that level.”

***
Burrillville  0 0 0 0 - 0
Woonsocket 0 14 0 0 - 14

                WHS            BHS
First downs            10             7           
Rushes-yards            37-248            23-29           
Passing            3-8-1            7-21-2           
Passing yards            16            80           
Punts-ave.            2-21            4-28           
Fumbles-lost            3-0            2-1           
Penalties            10-90            6-45           
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: W - Travis Gagne 26-226, Jordan Barr 10-6, Brian Doire 1-16. B - Daniel Mattera 2-5, Roger Blanchard 9-(-23), Brendan Darigan 9-33, Charles Carlow 3-14.
PASSING: W - Dominic Hernandez 3-8-1 16. B - Blanchard 7-21-2 80.
RECEIVING: W - Rafael Rodriguez 1-8, Geovanni Heredia 1-1, Jose Merced 1-7. B - Brent Sariteli 4-42, Carlow 1-24, Darigan 1-2, Dylan Armstrong 1-10, Nicolas Haffner 1-9.