The Cranston West football team let one get away on Friday night. In the always hotly-contested Division I, where only four teams make the postseason, the Falcons are in an early-season hole.

Playing Cumberland, West surrendered too many big passing plays and had a potential game-tying, fourth-quarter drive end on a desperation heave to the end zone in a 20-12 defeat.

Quarterback Steven Furtado ran for two touchdowns, but it was the Falcons’ inability to cover the pass that led to it falling to 0-1 in D-I. Cumberland is now 1-0.

West gave up 190 yards through the air and three touchdowns to Cumberland quarterback Tyler Calabro, including a 78-yard score on the first play of the fourth quarter that gave the Clippers a two-score lead.

“Third down, couldn’t get off the field, that’s our problem,” said West head coach Steve Stoehr. “We couldn’t cover a pass. We’ve had that problem at Westerly, and we had that problem tonight.”

Cumberland, a team that West had defeated four years in a row, moved up to Division I this year from Division II and looked the part of a D-I team, out-gaining the Falcons 378-200, and continually coming up with the big play in the big spot.

Yet, except for a handful of plays, the game was relatively even. Unfortunately for West, the Clippers made all of those plays.

“It feels great,” said Cumberland head coach Josh Lima. “We told the guys all week, ‘You’ve got to have that 1-0 mentality. It’s go 1-0. Win the quarter, win the half, win the game.’”

Two of Cumberland’s touchdowns came on third downs, including a third-and-goal from the 17-yard line in which Calabro found Jerome Evans in the end zone late in the third quarter.

West also gave up a crucial third-and-10 conversion on a play where Cumberland was backed up to its own 3-yard line. That conversion ended up keying the touchdown drive that ended with Evans’ 17-yard grab.

“On third down, you can’t be giving up slant passes for first downs,” Stoehr said.

West’s Furtado scored two rushing touchdowns – one in the first quarter and another in the fourth – but the final drive he led ended at the Cumberland 26-yard line, where he threw incomplete to the end zone on fourth-and-13 with 2:57 left.

The Clippers took over from there and were able to run out the clock, in part because of a West unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

Also working against the Falcons were a pair of injuries, as No. 1 halfback Raekwon Kisilywicz left with a neck injury late in the second quarter and running back/cornerback Matt Lonardo exited the game with an elbow injury.

“Hopefully we can get some people healthy,” Stoehr said. “We need them.”

Cumberland began the game with the ball and marched down the field on the opening drive, moving from their 31-yard line all the way to West’s 18-yard line before Calabro found Joseph Marcolini for a touchdown on third down. Calabro simply threw the ball up to the right side of the end zone and Marcolini – with a sizeable height advantage over Kisilywicz, who was playing cornerback – leapt in the air and made the catch.

“The beginning of the game we had them on the ropes, and third down we couldn’t get off the field,” Stoehr said. “You can’t get off the field, you can’t win the game.”

That made the score 6-0, and West answered immediately. Kisilywicz had a 48-yard return on the kickoff, and a facemask penalty set the Falcons up at Cumberland’s 13-yard line. Three plays later, Furtado barreled into the end zone to knot the score at six.

The score remained tied for the rest of the half, as each team lost a fumble and Calabro and Furtado each threw an interception.

In the second half, West started with the ball and drove down to Cumberland’s 36-yard line before a delay of game penalty forced it to punt on fourth-and-13. West also had a 62-yard touchdown run by Abdiel Mendez called back on the drive.

Cumberland took over on its own 3, and that’s when the game swung. After a rush for zero yards and an incomplete pass, the Clippers were backed up in a third-and-10. Calabro then found Marcolini for 14 yards on the right side for a huge first down, and running back Michael Stock broke off a 55-yard run on the next play and a 20-yard run on the play after that. Three plays later, Calabro hit Evans for the touchdown.

Stock was the game’s leading rusher and was a force all day, picking up 187 yards on the ground on 29 carries.

“Michael is a workhorse,” Lima said. “He works his tail off. He can get us the big runs. That’s what we work for, and he did a great job just digging out those hard yards.”

The Falcons punted on their next possession, and Cumberland took over on its own 14-yard line. Three plays into the drive, on a second-and-14, Calabro hit Evans streaking up the right hash, and he went untouched 78 yards for the score. The extra point made it 20-6.

West got a 15-yard touchdown run by Furtado on its next possession to cut the deficit to 20-12, but the next drive came up empty and Cumberland ended up with the victory.

“We just let up a few big plays,” Stoehr said. “What are you going to do? We’ll go back to the drawing board and keep working.”

Furtado was West’s leading rusher with 67 yards, while Alex Martinez had 37.

West’s next game won’t be any easier, as it visits La Salle on Friday night at 7 p.m. The Rams are 1-0, as they defeated Barrington 21-20 last week.

Cumberland will take on East Providence on Friday.