The Cranston East football team thought it was finally in good shape. After a slow start in Friday’s Division II playoff game against Mount Hope, the ’Bolts put together a 17-play, 58-yard drive that lasted almost until halftime.

That “almost” turned out to be big.

The ’Bolts didn’t finish that drive with a touchdown, instead turning the ball over on downs with 37 seconds left. On Mount Hope’s first play from scrimmage, Aaron Booth took a pitch and broke a 47-yard run that moved the ball deep into East territory. Three plays later, Jimmy Olson crossed the goal line with five seconds left in the half for what proved to be the only touchdown of the game. The Huskies held off several charges by the ’Bolts in the second half to win 7-2.

As East shuffled off the field after the final whistle, several key sequences loomed large. None was bigger than that first-half turn of events.

“We had a great drive going,” said East head coach Tom Centore. “In terms of being physical and running the ball, that’s one of the best drives we’ve had all year. We just needed that one block a few times to break it and it never happened. We gave them the ball, the kid made a great run and we didn’t respond.”

The result was a frustrating loss. While the Huskies went 6-1 in Division II-A during the regular season, the ’Bolts rode a parade of ups and downs to a 4-3 mark in II-B. With injuries and some off-field issues behind them, they were hoping to put it all together come playoff time.

Instead, they were unable to break out. Whether it was the drizzle and wind that limited the passing game or the crucial turnovers, it wasn’t East’s night.

“It wasn’t meant to be,” Centore said. “I just wish we could have had better conditions, but that’s football.”

Coming into the game, the ’Bolts planned to use an even mix of running and passing, but the rain changed things. Quarterback Rob Reardon didn’t complete a pass in the first half, while East stuck mostly to the run.

The Huskies also focused on the ground game, but in the early going, neither team did much of anything. Aside from a 62-yard run by Olson on Mount Hope’s first play from scrimmage, neither team picked up a first down until the second quarter.

That’s when the ’Bolts got their big drive going. They started at their own 6-yard line and methodically marched across midfield thanks to tough running by Albert Duran, Keith Jernquist and Jamey Scheer.

But the drive eventually stalled. Olson hit Duran for a 1-yard loss on a first down then stopped Scheer for no gain on second down. That forced a third-down pass attempt that fell incomplete.

With 41 seconds left and the ball at the Mount Hope 36, East elected to go for it on fourth-and-11. Reardon’s pass was batted down and almost intercepted. The Huskies took over.

“It was a great drive but when we had those two plays that got stopped, it put us into a tough situation,” Centore said. “In hindsight, maybe we should have punted the ball.”

On the first play of Mount Hope’s possession, Booth ran left on a toss play and found a lot of open space. He got all the way to the East 17 before finally getting pushed out of bounds.

“They stopped us all night on the sweeps,” said Mount Hope coach Ron Silva. “I don’t know if it was a great run, or if it was luck or both, but for whatever reason, we were able to break it. And we weren’t able to break many others tonight.”

Olson then picked up four yards before Booth took the ball to the 2-yard-line on another toss play. One play later, Olson took it in for the score.

“We practiced for that toss play and I think we stopped it 90 percent of the time,” Centore said. “Unfortunately on those two plays, we just didn’t have the outside contain.”

Considering the way East’s previous drive had gone, the Mount Hope touchdown didn’t look like a back-breaker. Unfortunately for the ’Bolts, opportunities for a comeback were elusive.

East lost a fumble on the first play of the second half, stopped the Huskies then lost another fumble on the first play of the next series. Though the ’Bolts again kept the Huskies off the board, they had run just two plays in five minutes.

“At the start of the second half, we needed to score and we thought that would be a big drive for us,” Centore said. “Fumbling twice – you can’t do that.”

The ’Bolts finally ran consecutive plays on their next drive but went three-and-out. Later in the third quarter, they put together another big drive, marching all the way to the Husky 14. But on a fourth-and-eight, Ryan Kuehl broke up a short pass for Duran to force a turnover on downs.

Still, that wasn’t the end of the line for the ’Bolts. On the first play of Mount Hope’s next series, Scheer tackled Booth in the end zone for a safety.

On the ensuing free kick, Joseph San Martin crushed the ball well past East’s deep men. Rob Bell ran back to the 10-yard line, scooped it up, found a seam down the sideline and streaked all the way to the end zone. It would have been the go-ahead touchdown, but the play was called back because of a holding penalty.

“The penalty really set us back,” Centore said. “It’s tough. If that touchdown had counted, we’ve got the momentum and I’m not sure they score on us.”

After the penalty, the ’Bolts took over near midfield and went three-and-out. They stopped Mount Hope two more times but again failed to get anything going on offense. A throw to the end zone in the final seconds fell incomplete.

“We couldn’t get anything going,” Centore said. “When you take away our passing game, it really hinders us.”

The ’Bolts finished with just 53 yards through the air. They picked up 110 yards on the ground, with Duran totaling 66, but they couldn’t get points on the board.

The Huskies, who allowed fewer points than any team in any division, were up to the task.

“We work a lot on defense and when we get out here, it’s up to them to come through,” Silva said. “They played hard tonight.”

With the win, the Huskies moved into the semifinals, where they’ll meet two-time defending champ South Kingstown.

East will turn its attention to Thanksgiving.

“We’re disappointed,” Centore said. “I wish we had done better. We had a lot of injuries and a lot off-the-field stuff that we don’t usually have to deal with. We knew what we wanted to do this year, but we had to kind of re-invent ourselves on the fly. That’s tough to do in the season, but that’s the way it goes.”