Under at times adverse conditions on what was a rainy Friday evening, Oct. 16, the Mt. Hope High School football team gritted out a much-needed 19-0 victory over host Lincoln in an important late-season Division III contest.

The Huskies notched the game's first three scores leading into the fourth quarter when the Lions prevented the shutout by tallying their lone touchdown in the middle of the period.

The win leveled Mt. Hope's record to 3-3 and just as crucially left them in fourth place in the league power rankings used to determine playoff qualification and seeding with only two games left in the regular season.

Lincoln dropped to 2-4 and resided in eighth place in the D-III standings at the time. Six teams make the playoffs with the top two seeds earning a bye into the semifinals. Seed 3 will host Seed 6 and Seed 4 the same with Seed 5 in the quarterfinal round.

The Lions received the opening kickoff and maintained possession for the better part of the opening period before the Mt. Hope defense stiffened and turned the hosts over on downs at the Huskies' 34.

Mt. Hope, in turn, used 12 plays to finish the first quarter and cross over into the second en route to starting the scoring, which came a minute and seven seconds into the period when quarterback Will Francis took a designed keeper around left end 27 yards into the endzone for the TD. Jake Mancieri's point-after kick made it 7-0 locals.

The Huskies built a two-score lead just before intermission with a little bit of luck involved.

Deep on the Lincoln side, Francis dropped back to pass from the Lions' 27. His throw on a shallow cross pattern, however, bounced off the outstretched hands of Tyler Rhynard at about the 20, but fortunately fell into the awaiting arms of fellow end Nick Rogers just behind his mate at the 15. The senior wideout then went untouched into the endzone. The PAT was no good, but the Huskies took a 13-0 lead to the break.

Late in the third, Mt. Hope gave itself some breathing room when on a toss play, running back Brody Cavalieri raced 65 yards pretty much unscathed off left tackle down the sideline for a TD. Again, the Huskies didn't convert the point-after kick, though the 19-0 score gave them a comfortable spread heading into the final frame.

Lincoln did ultimately avoided the white-wash by scoring on a five-yard TD pass with 5:46 remaining in the game.

Rogers had another huge game receiving, going over the century mark for the fourth consecutive contest as he finished with 10 receptions for a season- and career-high 147 yards.

Cam Oliver had a season-best four catches, good for 37 yards. Francis had one of his most consistent games to date passing, completing 16 of 20 throws for 203 yards.

The senior QB also ran for 102 yards on five carries. Cavalieri led the way on the ground for the locals, gaining 145 yards on 10 rushes.

The senior linebacker also had a fumble recovery on defense where he led MHHS with eight solo tackles and seven combos for 15 total. Cavalieri's linebacker partner Travis Furtado had five solos and 12 total. Matthew Thibaudeau added 10 total.

Mt. Hope next travels to Providence on Friday, Oct. 23, playing up against host and D-II Classical. Kickoff is 6 p.m. The Huskies face a struggling Purple side, which is winless in six games and is coming off a 42-6 loss to East Providence last week.