By TERRY NAU

Sports editor

NORTH SCITUATE – Backs against the wall? Ponaganset’s gritty football team thrives on that kind of pressure.
Having put themselves in a serious hole last week with a devastating 22-21 home loss to Johnston on the last play of the game, coach Tom Marcello’s Chieftains came into Saturday’s home contest with Narragansett knowing they needed to win to keep their playoff hopes alive.
The Mariners took the opening kickoff and controlled the football for nearly nine minutes, overpowering Ponaganset’s undersized defensive line with a ground game that ate up yardage in big chunks. Narragansett quarterback Brendan Kenny scored on a 4th-and-goal keeper from 6 yards out and the Mariners soon had an 8-0 lead after halfback Peter Smurro ran in the two-point conversion.
Things did not look good for the home team. But as we noted earlier, the Chieftains play better when they have nothing left to lose. And so this hard-luck club steeled its collective spines and ran off 23 unanswered points to beat a 5-1 Narragansett team by a 23-8 margin.
“Best team effort we’ve had since I’ve been the coach here,” said Marcello, putting this game over last year’s Super Bowl victory. “As low as we were last week (after the loss to Johnston), this was the greatest team win. Our defense showed some real intestinal fortitude. When we fumbled late in the game, that was the same scenario as last week and our guys just went out there and stopped them. This is what should have happened last week.”

Ponaganset’s comeback victory over Narragansett had many contributors. Consider the assistant coaches in the booth above the field who called two “fade” patterns that quarterback Jacob Kravitz threw perfectly to Joshua Morgan for a pair of crucial touchdowns.
“I’m too focused on the line of scrimmage to make those calls,” Marcello admitted. “Our coaches in the booth called those plays. I’ll tell you what, I would put Josh Morgan up against anyone in the state when it comes to catching jump balls. And our quarterback made two great throws.”
But let’s get back to the details of how Ponaganset turned an early deficit into a satisfying victory. The Chieftains got three points out of their first possession when sophomore Ethan Walsh nailed a 35-yard field goal that just cleared the upright with 5:07 left in the first half.
Walsh’s kick seemed to inspire his teammates. Ponaganset’s defense blitzed linebacker Larry Colaluca up the middle on Narragansett’s next play from scrimmage. Colaluca just missed wrapping up Kenny but sophomore defensive tackle John Greenhalgh didn’t, burying the Mariners’ QB for a 7-yard loss. Colaluca blitzed again on third down, forcing Kenny to cough up the football with safety Derek Rogala covering the football at Narragansett’s 15-yard line.
Ponaganset got six yards running the ball on the first three downs. On fourth down, Morgan lined up on the left side, split 10 yards off the formation, in man-for-man coverage. The speedy receiver ran straight to the left corner of the end zone, battled his defender for position, and came down with the football with 67 seconds left in the first half. Walsh’s kick gave Ponaganset a 9-8 lead at halftime.
Narragansett coach Dick Fossa tried to regain some momentum with an onsides kick to start the second half but Ponaganset’s Michael Paquin recovered at the Mariners’ 48-yard line. Keeling ran twice for nine yards before Kravitz picked up the first down with a quarterback sneak. Ponaganset had discovered an opening in the center of Narragansett’s defense and used it again for another keeper by Kravitz that gained five more yards.
The drive seemed to stall when Kravitz, who was 4-for-4 in the first half, threw an incompletion on third down. Faced with fourth-and-five at the 17, Marcello called time out. His coaching staff sent in the play – another fade route for Morgan and Kravitz again made a perfect throw.
“Their quarterback put the ball on the money twice,” Fossa said.
“I don’t think they respected our passing game,” Marcello said, “and if you looked at films of our passing game, I don’t blame them. But we have worked hard on throwing the ball and it showed today. Our quarterback made some significant plays.”
Once the Kravitz-to-Morgan combination had produced a 16-8 lead for Ponaganset, the Chieftains turned to the skills of Nicholas Keeling, a running back with speed who “sees” the field, utilizes his blocking downfield, and beats would-be-tacklers with a change of gears that is not commonly seen in these parts.
“We sort of eased into our running game,” Keeling, who has rushed for nearly 1,500 yards this season, said after the game ended. “After we got into a groove, it was great. Our linemen were making great blocks and I just had to follow them and my fullback (Colaluca). It got easier as the game went on.”
Keeling gained just 9 yards on 9 carries in the first half. He collected nine more yards on the first TD drive of the second half, then really began to roll with a 52-yard run down the left sideline that set up Colaluca’s two-yard scoring run with 2:30 left in the third quarter.
Early in the final stanza, Keeling broke a 39-yarder but that possession ran out of gas with 10:26 left in the game – just enough time for Narragansett to make one final comeback. The Mariners’ offense moved 59 yards in five plays, highlighted by Smurro’s 30-yard rumble, before Ponaganset held on downs after the drive reached the 8-yard line.
Ponaganset got the ball back with 7:37 left, only to see Kravitz fumble away the slippery seed (a light rain had fallen in the first half). Narragansett took over on Ponaganset’s 25-yard line -- where the Chieftains made one last defensive stand, pushing the Mariners into a 4th-and-14 last-chance bid. Morgan knocked down a Kenny pass at the 10-yard line to effectively end the game.
Ponaganset is now 4-3 in Division III  and stands in sixth place right now. Moses Brown and Johnston (4-3) are ahead of the Chieftains, who forfeited an earlier win over Moses Brown when  it was discovered the Chieftains had used an ineligible player in its victory over the Quakers back in September.
“We need two things to happen,” Marcello said. “We need East Greenwich to beat Moses Brown and we need Narragansett to beat East Greenwich on Thanskgiving Day.”
Ponaganset’s collective backs remain against the wall, despite Saturday’s victory. Maybe that’s a good thing.
***
Narragansett  8 0 0 0 – 8
Ponaganset 0 9 14 0 – 23
NARR – Brendan Kenny 7 run (Peter Smurro run)
PON – Ethan Walsh 35 FG
PON – Josh Morgan 8 pass from Jacob Kravitz (pass failed)
PON --  Josh Morgan 17 pass from Jacob Kravitz (Walsh kick)
PON – Larry Colaluca 2 run (Walsh kick)
  PON  NARR
First downs 14  9
Rushing-yards 40-247  31-99
Passing  6-9-55-0 2-9-16-1
Sacks  3-30  1-10
Fumbles-lost 3-1  2-1
Punting  0-0  1-35.0
Penalties 7-50  2-20
Individual statistics
Rushing: Ponaganset – Nicholas Keeling 24-152, Larry Colaluca 8-46, Joshua Morgan 2-54, Jacob Kravitz 5-(-5). Narragansett – Peter Smurro 16-93, Tyler Casey 5-22, Brendan Kenny 10-(-16).
Passing (completions-attempts-yards-interceptions):  Ponaganset – Jacob Kravitz 6-9-55-0; Narragansett: Brendan Kenny 2-16-8-1.
Receiving: Ponaganset – Joshua Morgan 4-28, Adam Babcock 2-27. Narragansett – Peter Smurro: 2-16.