Northmen search for a winning tradition

By PAUL R. DUBOIS

Breeze Sports Editor

It's more than just the traditional Thanksgiving Day rivalry game. This time it could mean turning the corner for both teams.

When North Smithfield High School's football team travels to Scituate Thanksgiving morning, it will have more than the usual sense of purpose. The Northmen were winless a season ago and are fighting for program credibility, while the Spartans are hoping to continue improvement strides they've made since the school reinstituted football just four seasons ago.

"We're an enigma," said North Smithfield head coach Wes Pennington, in his first year at the helm. "We were the only team to beat Middletown, but were the only team to lose to Providence Country Day. We beat Exeter/West Greenwich pretty handily, but lost to North Providence, so for us, it's a matter of which team shows up on a particular day.

Middletown took the division regular season crown, the loss to North Smithfield the only blemish on its record, and Exeter/West Greenwich is a strong playoff contender. Conversely, the win over North Smithfield was PCD's only one of the season, and North Providence has won two games.

A state trooper, Pennington served as an assistant coach before taking over the program this season and while he's enjoyed the turnaround that has left the Northmen with a 3-4 record heading into Thanksgiving morning with a chance of still making the playoffs, he knows there's a lot of work to do to establish North Smithfield as a football community.

"Why is it that you see some high schools are always strong in football year after year?" He asked. "They've built a winning tradition, and that breeds interest and more success. That's what we have to do here."

North Smithfield had an opportunity to seal its own playoff fate when it played North Providence, but fell behind 14-0 and never fully recovered, losing 14-12.

"We came out flat, got behind early and never could quite get there," said Pennington. "If we would have won that game and beat Scituate, that would have put us in the playoffs. Now we'll need some help."

But still, after not registering a victory all of last season, the program has made huge strides, and there is a talented group of underclassmen on board this year's squad, which bodes well for the future.

Pennington said he's looking for his balanced offensive attack to take control of the game against Scituate, with Roger Sherman II, Peter Mancini and Alex Blanchette handling the bulk of the carries. They'll mix in a passing attack with quarterback Matt Rondeau firing passes to a number of targets.

Defensively, Pennington said the key players to watch are linebacker Chris Mancini, a sophomore, Peter Mancini, a junior safety, Sherman, a senior captain and a safety and freshman linebacker Ryan Masnyk.

"Ryan's only a freshman but he's been playing great," said Pennington. "He made a key stop early in the Middletown game that gave us possession and helped turn the game around."

The coach said he intends on working closely with the North Smithfield XPress Rhode Island Pre-Teen Football League program to help bolster its ranks. Early indoctrination into football is critical, he said.

"There are some players who have gone through youth programs and they have a good idea of what to expect when they come out for high school, but there are others who come out for the team who may have some talent, but they're just playing for the first time and have a steep learning curve."

The Spartans and North Smithfield will kick off their holiday game at Caito Field and the winner could wind up in a three-way tie for fourth place. The Spartans returned to varsity football in 2006 and they hold a 2-1 edge over the Northmen in their short history following a 33-20 win on North's new synthetic field on Thanksgiving Eve 2008.

The blues peaked early and piqued the interest of a lot of their fans but have lost their last three games after posting a solid win at Central Falls last month in which they scored a season-high 38 points.

Head coach Mark Reed and his staff have been working their kids hard this season, believing that most of them now have three years experience and should have learned from their past mistakes.

Senior back Justin Staniorski has been involved in the offense since day one, taking hand offs and latching on to passes from quarterback Jared Hanson, and Mike Boucher added a nice balance to the Spartans' running game.

Junior Joe Notorantonio has contributed sparks to the blues' offense and will be a key player next season and kicker Michael Sherman will also be back. Senior captain Jeff Winchell was sidelined recently and is doubtful for his last game.