By ALEX SPONSELLER The Cranston West football team completed a 22-21 comeback victory over rival Cranston East last week during the annual Thanksgiving matchup at the stadium.

The Bolts took a 21-7 lead into the fourth quarter, but the Falcons would get an electric 12 minutes from freshman quarterback Kelan Cornell who led a pair of scoring drives to give the Falcons the lead.

Marcus Chung would score early in the fourth to pull West within one score and then Cornell connected with Hudson Carvalho on a 90-yard strike to set the score to 21-20. West elected to go for the 2-point conversion after East was called for an offsides penalty, and Chung would rush for the score to put the Falcons up 22-20.

East would eventually work its way into the West redzone in the final minute, but the Falcon defense would make the stop to wrap up the win.

“It was a great football game and each team played very hard. It was an exciting fourth quarter. It was a great game to be a fan and watch, it was a great game to be a part of, it was a fun one,” said West head coach Tom Milewski, who was excited to see Cornell enjoy a breakout performance. “It’s very encouraging. We kind of found him late in the season and he saw some time in the Shea game. He threw our two touchdowns that game and then led us to two scores (against East). He’s a good kid, he’s excited, he wants to do well. He’s young but he has a bright future. If he continues to work on what we’re teaching him, then I think he will be a very good quarterback down the road.”

Peyton Ginolfi rushed for a touchdown in the first quarter to give East the early 7-0 lead, but Chung would return the favor in the second to knot things at 7-7 at halftime. A’driahn Foreman rushed for a touchdown in the third quarter to give the Bolts the lead, and Laquinton Kelley would add some insurance with a score of his own to make it 21-7 heading into the fourth frame.

“It shows how strong of a rivalry this is. It’s a good, healthy, competitive rivalry and you saw that with the one-point game. It came down to the final minute and each team had its chances in the end. I know that East has a lot of guys returning next year as do we. I think fast forwarding to next year, it will be another very close game. I think each team has done well this year and this was a really good high school football game,” said Milewski.

After a year away from the tradition, the stadium was jammed packed in its return which created a great setting which was missed in 2020.

“It was absolutely terrific, it was a great atmosphere. It was a close game and between the bands, the cheerleaders, the fans, the halftime, it was a great atmosphere and the best in the state in my opinion. It was great to see the number of people that turned out to support the kids,” Milewski said.

Milewski will also miss the seniors that continued to battle throughout an unusual two seasons.

“This is a great group of kids that worked extremely hard. They’re a great group of young men that were a lot of fun to be around. The win-loss record wasn’t there, they got short changed with a lot of the things that we would typically do because of COVID restrictions, but at least they got a full season. They set the bar this year, they came in everyday ready to work which I think will help them in the future,” Milewski said. “It’s a long season, it’s a grind and it’s not for everybody. But they worked hard and made practice a lot of fun. I’m going to miss those guys.”