It came down to the very last play. 

The Barrington High School football team had the ball on the East Providence one yard line with 2.9 seconds remaining in the game on Thursday night, Sept. 3. The two teams had battled to a 0-0 stalemate up to that point in the annual RI Injury Fund showdown. 

The Eagles broke from their huddle and lined up in a familiar offensive set — quarterback Griffin Ingram was set in shotgun formation with a running back off to his side. The junior play-caller had handed off to running back Zach Borges more than a dozen times during the game, but as the time flickered off the clock, Ingram called his own number. He tucked the ball under his arm, sprinted around the left side of the line and into the end zone. 

The touchdown gave Barrington a 6-0 victory over East Providence.

Earlier in the quarter it appeared that East Providence would upset Barrington in front of the Victory Field crowd. The Townies’ Isaac Rodriguez fielded a Nate Romano punt deep in the East Providence end of the field and then barreled up the near sideline for an apparent score. A penalty on the Townies wiped out the score. 

Barrington High School head coach Sandy Gorham said he was particularly happy with his team’s defensive performance against a hard-charging East Providence attack. 

“I thought we did well defensively. Running against that offense on three days … actually, a day and a half because we didn’t settle in on how we wanted to defend it until really yesterday. That kid (EP quarterback Rodriguez) does a nice job with it,” Gorham said. “One or two breakdowns. For the most part, the kids did a really good job. 

“You’ve got to train your eyes, and you’ve got to know where your keys are and trust your eyes, because if you look inside and think you’ve got somebody else then they pitch the ball and the kid’s running free. That happened over here once. It happened on a pass play where we actually sacked the kid but two of their receivers were wide open. You have to be disciplined and if you’re not you’re going to give up the big play on that.”

Barrington opened the game on defense, and shined. Ryan Wilmarth made a big tackle from his position on the defensive line, and on third down, Anthony Eaton tore through the East Providence offensive line and sacked Rodriquez for an eight-yard loss. 

“Anthony Eaton, number 55, he played really well,” Gorham said. “I thought Cole Fluet… played really well. And we played a sophomore kid named Romano at end. Brady Dupee at the other end. For the most part, those kids stood out, but everybody played well.”

Owen DiOrio, at linebacker, Borges, at linebacker, and Miles Dolan, at safety, all made key stops for the Barrington defense. Colby Newton nearly intercepted an East Providence pass.

The Townies’ running attack wore the Eagles down a bit, but Eaton came through with a fumble recovery to kill a Townies’ drive. 

Meanwhile Barrington’s offense moved the ball between the tackles. Borges had four-, five-, and six-yard gains throughout the two-quarter game. 

“With the type of defense they were running, we’re going to go right at them,” Gorham said. “That’s why, at the end, I probably should have trapped earlier. Because they are going to run us down. We had a play I thought was going to go and the safety came right up and ran us down. They’re quicker than we are, so we wanted to run right at them, negate their strength which is their lateral movement and speed. Go at them.”

With 2:47 left to play in the game, Ingram broke away for a big gain. He smashed into a pair of would-be EP tacklers, kept his legs pumping and spun away into the open field. He was knocked out of bounds at the East Providence 32 yard line. A penalty against the Townies gave Barrington the ball inside the 20. Borges powered ahead for a gain and he almost scored with 11 seconds left to play. He was stopped at the one yard line with 2.9 seconds remaining. Barrington called a timeout and initially lined up for a field goal, but after an East Providence timeout, the Eagles set up ready to run. Ingram’s touchdown sent the hometown crowd into a frenzy. 

Next week

Gorham said Barrington will open up the regular season on Friday, Sept. 11 with a home game against Burrillville. 

“They’re a very well-schooled, tough team,” Gorham said. “I was telling them I was watching last year’s films and I think they (Burrillville) were the best route runners of any team we faced. They ran good routes and they turned us around a couple times.”