Week 1 of the 2025 Rhode Island high school football season kicks off on September 11, but we’ve already had a steady dose of games that will count in the standings.
The first game of the season took place on August 30 when La Salle beat Chaminade. Week 0 took place over the weekend and while most teams took part in the annual Injury Fund, results from the games do not count in the standings and statistics accrued won’t count toward season totals.
But a few teams opted out of Injury Fund and took part in games that matter. Central, La Salle, Pilgrim and Westerly left the Ocean State to play out-of-state opponents, earning experience and, almost more importantly, valuable RPI points.
Here’s what went down.
La Salle continues to show its toughness
The New England Patriots had Duron Harmon. Two weeks into the season, La Salle has Thomas Welsh.
Welsh sealed the Rams’ opening win against Chaminade with an interception and Friday, in overtime against Boston College High, he repeated the feat, coming up with a pick that secured the 22-15 victory.
“It’s nice to see that they’re fighting and willing to fight for 48 minutes,” La Salle coach Dan Koppen told the Journal on Saturday. “If it takes an extra possession, they’ll do that. Part of the process is learning how to win and learning how to win in tight games.
“… You never know the turning point or the play in the game that will decide it. It’s lock in and play tough on them all.”
Both defenses controlled the game. BC High picked up a first-quarter safety and led 9-0 before Sam Perry connected with Jalen Moseley on a touchdown that made it 9-7 at halftime.
BC High led 15-7 in the fourth quarter when the Rams found a spark from Brady Nardozzi, who replaced Perry, who threw two picks in the first half. Nardozzi hit Antonio Bearden for the touchdown and converted the two-point play to tie the game at 15.
“I think we’ve known as coaches all summer and all training camp that we have two good quarterbacks,” Koppen said. “… One of the bad things for us is we didn’t have a scrimmage where those kids had time to show what they could do so as coaches we’ve been looking for a chance to see what both have.
“I told the kids who we start may not be how we end the season. It wasn’t anything that Sam did or didn’t do, I just felt at the time with the way things are going it was time to switch.”
In overtime La Salle started with the ball and Nardozzi and Bearden hooked up for another touchdown, with the extra point making it 22-15. BC High tried to respond, rolling its quarterback out right and throwing into traffic, with Welsh coming up with the interception and sealing the victory and a 2-0 start to the season.
“We still have a long way to go,” Koppen said. “I don’t want to take anything away from the win and the way the kids fought all night long and their effort.
“Defensively I thought they played really well and kept us in the game. Offensively, we still have a long way to go.”
Pilgrim finds a way
It was the type of play that can derail a game. The Patriots didn’t let it happen.
After giving up a Hail Mary touchdown with one second left to cut the lead over Seekonk to one, Pilgrim didn’t play the blame game. When the Warriors decided to go for the win, the Patriots made sure it didn’t happen, stopping the 2-point conversion to get the 21-20 win over Seekonk.
“I would have been a lot happier and calmer if it ended 21-14, but it was great,” Pilgrim coach Blake Simpson told the Journal on Saturday. “We used a timeout before the 2-point play to collect the guys and calm them down and the greatest thing we were hearing was no one was pointing fingers at the DBs or anyone after the Hail Mary.
“They were like ‘we have to make this stop,’ a next-play mentality and they did it.”
Pilgrim is young and inexperienced, with 22 sophomores on the roster and only five seniors, but showed signs of its potential.
The Patriots have a two-quarterback system in place, but learned heavily on junior Adam El Rhazali, the team’s dual-threat quarterback. El Rhazali showed his athleticism in the second quarter with a 65-yard touchdown run, then popped a 37-yarder in a third quarter that ended with the game tied at 14.
In the fourth quarter, El Rhazali showed he can throw it a little bit, hitting Anthony Farhat on a 40-yard touchdown pass with an important extra point made by Ty Johnson.
The performance may be a sign for things to come for Pilgrim, which hits the road Friday to take on Woonsocket in Week 1.
“We’re returning four offensive linemen this season,” Simpson said. “After this it was evident this year is going to be more run-heavy for us.”
Westerly falls in a shootout
The Bulldogs scheduled themselves a tough opponent in Week 0 with Scituate, a team that went undefeated and won a state title in Massachusetts last fall.
There was a lot of good for Westerly and some bad, but the Bulldogs’ 33-29 loss to the Sailors showed that they could very well be the team to beat in Division II in 2025.
“I was definitely proud of our guys. We played hard against a very solid team,” Westerly coach Ron Sposato told the Journal on Saturday. “For the first game where it’s normally an Injury Fund game, we got better playing against a great team.
“I’m OK with the results – we had our chances to come away with a win, but one or two mistakes really hurt us.”
While Rhode Island has become familiar with the exploits of All-State quarterback Landon Husereau, the junior made a name for himself outside of the state’s borders with his performance. Husereau completed 27 of 43 passes for 330 yads and two touchdowns and one pick in the loss.
“He played as expected,” Sposato said. “There were a couple times he got blitzed a lot, was rushed tough and got hit as he threw. I think he did a good job.”
Special teams stole the show in the first quarter, with Jake Caron answering a Scituate touchdown by making a house call on the ensuing kickoff. Later in the quarter, Calvin Hill scooped up a blocked punt and scored.
Tied at 13 after the first, Husereau’s 9-yard touchdown pass to Daniel Cummings put Westerly back ahead and it took a 20-19 lead into the break.
In the third quarter, Scituate blocked a punt that led to a score, but the Bulldogs’ cut into the deficit with a safety that made it 26-22 heading to the fourth. Husereau gave Westerly a 29-26 lead with under five minutes left with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Caleb Williams, but Scituate responded with a touchdown drive of its own and took a 33-29 lead that stuck on a touchdown run by Grayson Foley.
“Even though Foley had some good runs, I was pretty happy with our defensive line play and the defense in general,” Sposato said. “Two scores were because of special teams, but I also think we ran the ball better than I thought we would.
“… Running the ball has to be a priority, because we can’t expect to throw it 40 times and win games every week.”
Central learns some lessons
The Knights had a long ride up to Manchester Memorial and an even longer drive home after the tough 14-13 loss, but coach Mike Washington is confident what happened in the game will help his team in their state championship chase.
“This film is the best possible thing that could have happened to us,” Washington told the Journal on Saturday. “There’s a lot of attitude adjustments with the kids who were feeling themselves a little too much.”
Central started their night with a bang, as Richard Bridges got loose and got going all the way for a 60-yard first-quarter touchdown. Trailing 14-7 in the third quarter, Michael Butler got some room to work with and scored on a 20-yard touchdown run to make it 14-13.
After a penalty moved the try to the 1 ½-yard line, Washington elected to go for two. The run was stopped, sending Central to the fourth trailing by one.
With both defenses in control, the Knights had one last chance in the waning minutes of the game. Freshman quarterback Keanu Novaton found Keyah Sunnway open and the All-Stater did what he does best, breaking a tackle and racing for what appeared to be the game-winning score.
The celebration was quickly snuffed out by a flag thrown by the official for a Central holding call.
Result aside, Washington was happy with what he saw from his squad on Friday night.
“My freshman quarterback, there’s a lot of promise with him. The defense played great and we felt we played really good,” Washington said. “They scored on a short field and a busted coverage. Our defense looked really good but we have to clean up on the offense.”
Playing the game will help the RPI and help Central get ready for a wide-open Division I. The Knights will play one more out-of-state opponent in Week 1 when they face Milton before getting back to RIIL foes.
“These games are supposed to be high adversity situations,” Washington said. “This is a more hostile environment and we’ve got one next week with Milton.
“You find out a lot about yourselves early and transitioning to the Rhode Island schedule, I’m not saying it’s favorable but it should feel less pressurized.”
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Scores from Rhode Island High School Football on Friday September 5 2025
