Last Friday night, Oct. 9, should have served as an "enlightening" evening for the Mt. Hope High School football team for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was reaffirming to the Huskies of how not to play with a sizable lead.

For the third time so far in 2026, Mt. Hope failed to hold a 14-point advantage, leading to a third loss. This one happened to come in crushing fashion as the Huskies on the very last possible play fell to visiting East Greenwich, 41-40.

The setback left the locals with a 2-3 overall record, 1-1 against Division III foes. The Avengers improved to 5-0 overall and 3-0 against their fellow D-III competitors.

"This is the third time we've done this. We've been up 14 in every loss this year," said an obviously frustrated MHHS head coach Shane Parker. "But we make decisions that are selfish. And instead of just winning the game, we want to make ourselves look like the ones that are going to win the game. And this is what we get. We got exactly what we deserve."

The setback also came in what will be Mt. Hope's lone night of the season under the newly installed lighting system at Warren's Veterans Field. As well, it sent a large Homecoming game crowd home feeling defeated much in the way the Huskies had to feel themselves.

The back-and-forth contest wasn't decided until the last play that could be run after Mt. Hope scored a touchdown as time expired in the fourth quarter, bringing the Huskies to within a point of a tie. Parker opted to attempt a two-point conversion rather than kick to and send the game into overtime. Under some duress, quarterback Will Francis rolled left and was only able to heave a push-pass into the endzone, which fell incomplete.

"The amount of mistakes we made, I didn't trust us to go into overtime," Parker said rather pointedly of his decision. "The game was over an hour and a half ago. We chose not to end it. So we were going to end it there one way or the other."

The 90-minute span Parker referenced was when Mt. Hope, after falling behind early, three times built leads it couldn't maintain. It was especially infuriating for the coach because the Avengers were playing without several regulars who did not dress due to infractions committed at school during the week.

"That's their JV team," Parker said of East Greenwich. "They had 11 kids suspended. They walked their JV team down here, and we couldn't even execute. They don't make mistakes. All we do is make mistakes."

The Avengers didn't look like a team minus many pieces. They scored to end the game's initial possession, using 11 plays and a pair of Mt. Hope encroachment infractions to cover 76 yards. Senior running back Spencer Padula capped the drive with a 12-yard TD run. Harrison DeTomasis's kick for point made it 7-0 with just over five minutes remaining in the opening quarter.

The Huskies had an immediate response, going on their own 75-yard march to level the score. Three Francis to Nick Rogers connections in the air set up the touchdown.

Rogers' first catch came off a low throw in the flat and with his knee barely off the turf. His second ended with him losing the ball as he was crunched by a handful of Avenger defenders, but the officials ruled him down by contact and Mt. Hope kept possession. Rogers' third grab came on a fourth-down slant pass for 11 yards, keeping the drive alive.

It eventually ended when Francis found Tyler Rhynard in the back of the endzone for an eight-yard TD early in the second quarter. Jake Mancieri's kick tied the score at seven.

The Huskies' defense next forced an East Greenwich punt, which Rogers dazzlingly returned 82 yards for the go-ahead score. The senior seemed hemmed in upon corralling the ball at his own 18, but darted his way through traffic all the way back down the field. Mancieri's second PAT made it 14-7 locals.

The see saw nature of the game continued next when the Avengers matched the TD. Much of the work was done through the air on passes by QB Mark Bradshaw. Padula again finished it with a five-yard run. And DeTomasis' kick leveled the score at 14.

Mt. Hope struck back quickly. Following a two-yard carry by Brody Cavalieri to open the drive, Francis connected with Rhynard on a bomb down the middle for a 72-yard throw-and-catch. The junior receiver made a nice over-the-shoulder grab on the post pattern, outracing his EG defender the final 20-plus yards. Mancieri's third PAT put the local on top once more, 21-14.

Bradshaw, though, shredded the MHHS secondary again on the Avs' ensuing drive. And he concluded the series with a one-yard keeper to make it 21-20 Huskies, which is where it remain into halftime after Mt. Hope's Travis Furtado blocked the kick attempt.

The third quarter opened with the hosts scoring after getting the kick. The key play in the series was a Francis to Rhynard swing pass that went for 19 yards. Francis later faked a handoff to Cavalieri for a dive play, instead keeping it and running 12 yards for TD off left tackle. But EG's rush disrupted Mancieri's kick, which for a rare time he missed leaving the score at 27-20.

Having built on their lead, the Huskies appeared to have built on their momentum as well when Chase Savinon ended EG's next possession by intercepting Bradshaw and returning the pick back 16 yards to the Avs' 32 with 2:14 left in the third.

It took Mt. Hope just four plays to cash in the turnover. Francis hit Rogers for 13 yards on third down to once again keep the drive going. The QB then once more faked a pitch on read-option run to right this time, keeping it to cover the final 17 yards. Mancieri's boot upped the Huskies' margin to 34-20.

But East Greenwich would reach the endzone three times in the fourth to rally. The first came on a seven-yard pass from Bradshaw to Brady Nardozzi on a fourth-and-goal play. The PAT sliced the Avengers' deficit to seven.

Walker Klika next turned the tables on Francis, the EG defensive back intercepting a pass. But the turnover went for naught when Rogers broke up a fourth-down pass by Bradshaw to give the Huskies the ball back.

Mt. Hope's ensuing drive stalled at the EG 46 when Francis could only gain three yards on a fourth-and-five carry.

The Avengers, in turn, used two lengthy Bradshaw tosses to find the tying TD. The first went to Tyler Gecawich for 32 yards. The second to Nardozzi went for 22 and into the endzone. DeTomasis kick evened the score at 34 with 2:35 to go.

A sequence that helped determine the final outcome began when EG held the Huskies to a punt on their ensuing series. The snap, though, sailed way over the head of Mancieri, who fell on the ball at his own 21 rather than attempt to scoop it up and try a kick.

It then took just one play for the Avengers to strike, Bradshaw and Padula combining for the touchdown on a middle screen. The PAT put the guests on top 41-34 with only 1:30 left.

Parker was particularly perturbed with Mt. Hope's defensive approach on the score.

"This is what we've become. We do our own thing," Parker said. "On their touchdown down there, we had a kid blitz. We don't even have a blitz installed. He just decided to blitz and then his zone's vacated and they score a touchdown. We do our own thing, and that's why we lose games."

The Francis to Rogers connection gave the Huskies life on their next series. They paired for three completions, the last for 15 yards and a TD after Mt. Hope snapped the ball with 2.2 seconds showing.

But as thrilling as score was, so, too, was how dreary things felt when Francis' conversion toss fell to the turf.

"It was wide open, absolutely wide open," Parker said of the ill-fated, two-point play call. "We just didn't execute. We never execute."

Francis finished his night 15-for-22 passing for 247 yards, three TDs and the pick. He also rushed for 87 yards on 11 carries. Cavalieri ran for 50 on seven. Rogers had eight catches for 108 yards and a TD. Rhynard's three catches went for 110 yards and two touchdowns.

Furtado and Cavalieri, from their linebacker spots, each had five solo tackles to lead the locals. They finished with 13 and 12 total taketowns, respectively. Matthew Thibaudeau had nine total tackles, four solo, while Savinon and Ian Pereira had eight apiece.

Mt. Hope returns to the road for its next contest, a D-III outing in Lincoln Friday night, Oct. 16. Kickoff is at 6 o'clock. The Lions are 2-3 overall, 2-2 in the league and are coming off a 36-22 win over Mt. Pleasant.