Mt. Hope is heading to the D-III Super Bowl. How it got there shouldn't be a surprise

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WARREN – Their football dreams started a decade ago as Pop Warner players, learning the game on the field at Kickemuit Middle School.

For the Mt. Hope football team – especially its seniors – it wasn’t about to see current dreams dashed on the same piece of turf.

For four quarters Saturday, the Huskies did what they’ve done all season long. It was power football at its finest, as the line won the battles up front on both sides of the ball, former lineman-turned-quarterback Will Francis finished drives with authority as Mt. Hope dashed any hopes upset-minded East Greenwich had in a 34-0 win that sends the team to the program’s first Super Bowl since 2009.

“We were in the weight room, December, January, just lifting. This offseason, our spring practices, [we were saying] we have to get ready for Classical the week of Thanksgiving,” Mt. Hope senior lineman Quentin Smith said. “We knew were going to play in the Super Bowl so it felt really good.”

“It feels great going to the championship, but the job’s not finished,” said Francis, who finished with 140 yards rushing and three touchdowns. “We have to keep working harder and doing what we need to do to win.”

Two years ago Mt. Hope learned that winning doesn’t come easy – and sometimes at all. The winless 2023 season sent a message that it would take some work to get the program turned in the right direction. The work paid off last season to the tune of a 6-2 record that was clouded in controversy when the Huskies felt their RPI rankings wasn’t accurate. Mt. Hope lost in court, then lost in the playoffs.

But the Huskies didn’t lose that fire. The weight room became their second home and created a monster. Mt. Hope wasn’t going to be satisfied with winning football games anymore. It was going to suck the soul out of the opposition.

East Greenwich knew what the Huskies were planning to do. The Avengers faced a team with similar intentions, only to use their athleticism and execution to delete Ponaganset from the playoffs.

Mt. Hope was equally prepared. A penalty stalled its first drive and after the defense came up with a  stop, the Huskies went on their stroll, gashing through the East Greenwich defense before Francis – all 6-foot-3, 225 pounds on him – followed his line and bulled his way into the end zone for a 6-0 lead 1:14 into the first quarter.

It was wash, rinse, repeat after that. The defense came up with a stop and again, Mt. Hope trudged down the field. Francis used his size – he was a lineman at Hendricken as a freshman before growing a few inches and slimming down some – and speed to get loose on a 25-yard touchdown run and a 13-0 lead the team took into halftime.

“I’m the type of guy I can get a lot of yards per carry,” Francis said. “… In the red zone, it’s almost a guaranteed touchdown.”

Franis proved as much in the third quarter with another score, cross the goal line with little resistance. A 20-point lead seemed safe heading to the fourth quarter, but the Huskies weren’t satisfied with safe. On a third-and-16 play, Jayden Martin flipped a screen pass to Robert Annis, who broke a tackle in the backfield and picked up first-down yardage plus a lot more, scoring to make it 27-0. Annis – who ran for 152 yards in the game – later put the finishing touches on the win, using a stiff-arm coming off the left edge near midfield to create separation before racing down the sideline for the game’s final score with 4:51 left.

“We’re never comfortable. We always have to come prepared,” Smith said. “We played [East Greenwich] in the regular season and we stifled their comeback and we knew we couldn’t let that happen again.

“To get that goose egg feels amazing.”

The defense was tremendous and while there was some minor bending, the Huskies never broke. Their best defense might have been its offense, which had lengthy drives that ate yardage and clock. Five ended in scores, but the ones that didn’t put points on the board were still productive because it kept the ball out of EG’s hands.

While credit goes to the play of Annis, Francis and Tyler Rhynard handling most of the carries – Mt. Hope ran for 372 yards on the day – the offensive line were in control the entire afternoon. They out-toughed East Greenwich, which was the gameplan from the start.

“We love the mud,” Smith said. “We love playing on this field. It gets sloppy. That’s our game plan.”

Barring some sort of nature disaster or freak weather occurrence, the next field Mt. Hope plays on won’t be. The Huskies are heading to Cranston Stadium for a title game for the first time since losing the Division II Super Bowl in 2009, in search of the program’s first championship since winning the 1998 Division II championship.

Mt. Hope will face the team it opened the season with, a Classical team that won the regular season matchup and is hungry for a title after getting upset by Ponaganset in the D-III Super Bowl last fall.

“We know they’re going to be a tough team,” Francis said. “They pass a lot, they have a really strong running back and we just have to watch the film and lock in.”

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Score from East Greenwich vs. Mt. Hope Division III football semifinal

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