Much like the weather Saturday morning, the hopes of the Tiverton High football team in its season-opener against Narragansett started off sunny then quickly became dark and overcast.

The Mariners blunted the Tigers' first drive of the contest with an interception, seizing the momentum from that point en route to a decisive 20-0 victory in the initial Division Four outing of the year for both teams.

Zach Seegers scored twice on the ground for Narragansett. Ben Stiles caught the other touchdown for the Mariners.

Narragansett's defense, with its size advantage on the line, did the rest of the work as the Mariners grabbed the very early edge in the chase for one of the four D-Four postseason bids.

THS runningback Butch Byrne is wrapped up by a pair of Narragansett defenders.

"This was a big game for us," said Narragansett coach Dick Fossa. "There are six teams really competing for the four playoff spots and one of them is Tiverton. So it's nice to get a victory over one of the five we're competing with."

'Gansett's control of the contest bore out in the statistics. The Mariners ran 60 offensive plays to 33 for Tiverton. In the third quarter alone, the Tigers managed just one, three-and-out offensive series and had the ball for less than a minute in the period.

"There's not a lot to say about this one," said Tiverton coach Bob Murray. "They dominated us. We played a very good team today. They beat us in every phase of the game."

Narragansett did.

The Mariners had 409 yards of total offense to the 106 of the Tigers and Narragansett had 12 first downs to four for Tiverton.

"I don't think we performed up to our capabilities today, but that's a good football team. They beat us up," Murray added. "(Seegers) is a very good player and their quarterback (Jim O'Brien) is outstanding. And I think their line beat our line up. You have a combination of those things and they get 60 plays and we only get (33)."

Seegers alone had more yardage on the ground than Tiverton had as a unit, rushing for 141 on 22 carries. Quarterback Jim O'Brien was precise in his passing, going 9-for-15 with 119 yards and the TD. Craig Dolan finished with 39 yards rushing on 14 carries.

"We lost our entire offensive line from last year, so it was nice to know we could run the same offense," said Fossa. "We have two of the best backs in the state and our quarterback is also very good, so it was nice to see us control the ball like we did."

Morganweck, who left the game late with a sprained ankle and did not return, led Tiverton with 88 total yards from scrimmage. He threw for 77 on 6-of-15 passing and ran for 11 yards on three carries.

Butch Byrne had four of the catches for 72 yards. Pat Carberry made the other for a five-yard completion. Nick Silva was the only other Tigers to reach double figures individually with 10 yards rushing on two carries.

Tiverton started strong as Morganweck and Byrne connected on two passes for 48 yards on the Tigers opening drive.

Once, Byrne beat Jamie Degidio. The second time, the 'Gansett defensive back intercepted Morganweck and returned the ball all the way to the Tiverton 35.

"They made a couple of nice passes the first few plays. But to our credit and to Jamie's credit, he got burned on one of them, he just stayed in there," said Fossa.

Five plays later, Seegers burrowed in from the three to put the Mariners on top. He also ran in the two-point conversion to give his side an 8-0 lead.

Narragansett's defensive dominance the rest of the game was on the display the next Tiverton possession. The Tigers went three-and-out and punted.

The Mariners needed only four plays to make Tiverton pay. Seegers did the trick with a run from the 11.

"I think physically, they just ran over us," said Murray. "We're lucky the score wasn't 50-0."

Neither scored before the break. In the third quarter, Narragansett ran 17 offensive plays to Tiverton's four, but still couldn't score.

On their first full drive of the fourth, however, they did. Narragansett used 11 plays to notch the TD. O'Brien ended the possession with a 14-yard pass to Ben Stiles in the corner of the endzone.

By Mike Rego

mrego@eastbaynewspapers.com