What's West Warwick's magical secret to success this season? Confidence

WARWICK — No one will ever confuse West Warwick’s performance on Friday night as perfect football. It was far from it.

But it was part of the Wizards’ evolution. In the past, the bad plays that occurred against Pilgrim would have haunted the team, disrupted the sideline and turned a game it could win into another loss.

This West Warwick team is different from previous versions and Friday's result was only further proof. The Wizards played with confidence and made plays in all three phases of the game.

James Branch made two huge plays on special teams and, before the end of the first half, DionDre Chase overcame fumbling issues and showed what kind of back he could be, and the defense refused to break. The 19-7 triumph won’t win any beauty contests but it still counts as a victory and that’s something the Wizards believe they can do a lot of this fall.

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“Everybody’s been sleeping on us," Branch said. "We’ve been working, putting in the work in the offseason; everybody’s in the gym daily. All the boys, we’ve got 'dawgs' now. Everybody woke up.”

“We haven’t won three games in a row in who knows how long,” Chase said after he had rushed for 160 yards. “We definitely believe in ourselves.”

At this point, why shouldn’t they?

Despite having won just two league games in the previous three seasons, West Warwick went into this season with promise. It opened the fall with an impressive comeback win over Cranston West that gave the Wizards exactly what they needed — the confidence to believe they could win games.

That confidence is a game-changer for a struggling program trying to turn things around and Friday showed why.

While West Warwick made the plays that mattered, it was how it responded to the bad ones that changed everything.

Pilgrim drove the field on its second possession but the Wizards came up with a stop and forced the Patriots to try a field goal. Branch — running off Chase’s shoulder — split the line and blocked the kick. The ball was picked up by Isaac Casarez and run back 84 yards for the score.

“[Chase] was like, ‘James, go in; I’m going to make him follow me inside. It’s a block,’ ” Branch said. “I went in, hit the ball and [Casarez] picked it up for the touchdown.”

The excitement of the play was quickly wiped out by the ensuing play, when Pilgrim’s Luka Ruscio took the kickoff back 79 yards for a score. Josh Escamilla's kick gave the Patriots a 7-6 lead.

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West Warwick regrouped and on Pilgrim’s next possession, the defense came up with a red-zone stop. The offense’s response looked quick, as Chase got loose, cut outside and raced down the left sideline. Trying to fend off tackles to finish off the run, Chase was stripped at the 1, giving the Patriots the ball back.

The Wizards’ defense went back to work. Branch came up with an interception near midfield and ran it back to the Pilgrim 20 with six seconds left in the half. With time for just one play, Brady Miale threw it up for Branch, who made the catch, cut hard to his left and sneaked into the end zone.

“That gave us momentum," Branch said. "It made everybody hyped. We used it to our advantage to win the game.”

Opening the second half, Chase showed that the lost fumble was well behind him. He carried the ball four times for 42 yards on the opening drive of the third quarter, the last a 16-yard touchdown run that put the Wizards up, 19-7.

West Warwick did not score the rest of the game but Chase was a clock killer. He finished the game with 19 carries for 160 yards, with 103 of those coming in the final two quarters. Chase looked determined and it wasn’t hard to figure out why.

“I fumbled, so when I fumbled, I felt I needed to turn up,” Chase said. “I needed to get my get-back in and run harder.

“I definitely have to hold the ball better. Definitely need to keep it tucked and watch out.”

“That running back can play,” Pilgrim’s Dylan Roberts said. “That’s a 'dawg' right there.”

With the Warwick offense eating the clock, Pilgrim’s opportunity to possess the ball was limited. The Patriots had only two possessions in the second half and, while they reached the red zone, thanks in part to a swing pass that turned into a 60-yard gain by Dylan Roberts, West Warwick’s defense was at its best when it mattered most.

“We needed to,” Chase said. “The DBs did their job — we were stopping the passes. The D-line was applying pressure so the quarterback could get nervous and throw the ball away.”

Pilgrim was without the services of game-breaking running back Alex Pinheiro and some other injuries saw the Patriots put a rather inexperienced lineup on the field. Even with all that, the Patriots weren’t that far from winning on Friday.

Two of West Warwick’s scores occurred on easily correctable mistakes. Pilgrim quarterback Carter Clifton has been playing the position for all of three months but his potential shined through with his ability to run and make throws into tight windows. The Patriots didn’t finish drives but making them was the first step.

Now they’ll have to figure out how to take that second step when they travel to play Ponaganset next Friday.

“We left it all on the field and this team can play," Roberts said. "It’s not the score we wanted but I’m so proud of these guys. All we have to do now is go in the film room and clean this up. We’ve got to clean up our stuff and get ready for next week.”

West Warwick also will have to work on cleaning things up. At 2-0, the Wizards are slowly establishing themselves as Division III contenders. But it won't be any easier for them next week as they make the trip south to take on defending D-III champion Narragansett.

In the past, a road game against a team like that would lead to a nervous week of practice in West Warwick. Now that’s not the case.

“We’ve got to keep working, actually. We don’t like those points,” Branch said, referring to Friday’s low-scoring win. “We want more. We want more and more.”

“[We have] all the confidence in the world,” Chase said. “Three wins in a row? Haven’t done this in three years. This feels amazing.”

West Warwick 19, Pilgrim 7

Second quarter

WW — Isaac Casarez 84 blocked kick return (pass fails), 11:46

P — Luka Ruscio 79 kick return (Josh Escamilla kick), 11:34

WW — James Branch 20 pass from Brady Miale (kick fails), 0:00

Third quarter

WW — DionDre Chase 16 run (Kieton Nunes kick), 8:50

TEAM STATISTICS

RUSHING — West Warwick 33-189, Pilgrim 27-66. PASSING — West Warwick 4-11-70, Pilgrim 9-17-144. TOTAL OFFENSE — West Warwick 259, Pilgrim 210. FIRST DOWNS — West Warwick 14, Pilgrim 11. FUMBLES-LOST — West Warwick 5-1, Pilgrim 1-0. TOTAL TURNOVERS — West Warwick 1, Pilgrim 1. PUNTS-YARDS — West Warwick 2-56, Pilgrim 2-67. TIME OF POSSESSION — West Warwick 24:23, Pilgrim 19:37.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: West Warwick — Diondre Chase 19-160, TD, fumble; James Branch 3-17; Zach Raynor 7-7; Shaun Shultz 1-4; Brady Miale 3-2; Team 1-(-1). Pilgrim — Carter Clifton 11-28; Dylan Roberts 3-24; Matt Santos 8-12; John Kelly 3-3; Justin Murphy 1-(-1).

PASSING: West Warwick — Miale 4-11-70, TD. Pilgrim — Clifton 9-17-144, INT.

RECEIVING: West Warwick — Branch 3-49, TD; Chase 1-21. Pilgrim — Roberts 4-86; Murphy 4-56; Santos 1-8.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: West Warwick is undefeated in Division III after win over Pilgrim