Last Friday’s Division I football showdown between Cranston West and St Ray’s turned out to be the game of the week, as the Saints held on to top the visiting Falcons in a 32-27 shootout in Pawtucket.

Cranston West drove deep into St. Ray’s territory in the fourth quarter and quarterback Jon Leroux connected with receiver Charlie Cornell on a fourth-and-16 situation to score a touchdown and put the Falcons up 27-26 with 2:06 remaining. The Saints would put together one final drive and score the game-winner with 22 seconds left, though, to improve to 3-0 while West dropped to 0-3.

“They made more plays than we did, we had some broken plays and I thought we spotted them 14 points to start the game. We did a nice job and buckled down, we kept playing and didn’t give up. It came down to the last few seconds and we had some issues, but I’m proud of the guys,” said West head coach Tom Milewski. “We kept fighting and I’m proud of that. We took it to the wire against a really solid football team and I think we looked like a pretty good team as well.”

The Saints broke off a pair of touchdown passes in the first quarter to take a quick 14-0 lead, but West punched back in the second when Mehkhai Taylor rushed for a score and Cornell hauled in the tying touchdown to make it 14-14 at the halftime break.

The Saints opened the second half by scoring on another touchdown pass in the opening drive, but West responded two minutes later when Leroux connected with Cornell for his second of three touchdowns. St. Ray’s managed to get one more score to go up 26-21 before the game entered the fourth quarter. 

The St. Ray’s defense came up big in the fourth quarter as it stopped West at the 2-yard line with 10:16 left.

The Falcons entered the game coming off a shutout loss to Portsmouth the previous contest. West’s offense fired on all cylinders in the final three quarters as Taylor kept the chains moving on the ground and the Leroux-Cornell connection was in full swing.

“We had great balance, Mehkhai Taylor, Joe Bucci, Jon Leroux … Charlie Cornell with those excellent touchdown catches where he went up for the ball. We need to ride those guys and that momentum,” said Milewski.

West kicker Joe Manzi had some key moments for West as well, kicking an extra point after the team was pushed back 15 yards on a penalty and later pinning the St. Ray’s offense back in its own territory by kicking a touchback. The touchback prevented the Saints from scoring on their final drive before halftime. 

“Joe comes every day, works every day, runs conditioning with us, works his PATs, his field goals. Until you don’t have a kicker you don’t realize how important it is. It makes you feel more comfortable and we’re pretty confident that he’s going to make it,” said Milewski.

The Falcons will be back at it on Friday as they host Cumberland. The Clippers enter the matchup with a 2-1 record.