Villanovan Win Against Tollgate Puts Woonsocket At #12 In Media Poll

Woonsocket jumped up three spots, to No. 12 in the media poll, thanks to a 34-0 win against unranked Toll Gate. The jump was mostly thanks to other teams losing though given that the Titans are 0-5 in Division II play, and they've been outscored 171-24 in five games.

The Villa Novans will host a slightly tougher opponent, Chariho, at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. The defending Division II Super Bowl champions have had struggles of their own, with just a 1-4 record in Division II play. A win against Chariho by Woonsocket would knock the Chargers out of playoff contention.

All 14 first place votes went to No. 1 La Salle this week, after No. 3 Hendricken took its first loss of the season, 39-13, to No. 2 Portsmouth.

The win puts the Patriots in good position for a home game in the Division I playoffs, as long as they can win Friday against No. 4 Cranston East. The Thunderbolts can muddy the picture further with a win of their own though.

The big movers in this week’s poll were No. 13 West Warwick, No. 18 Westerly and No. 19 East Providence, although for the wrong reasons. All three teams fell at least five spots after losses.

The full poll:

Rank Team Points Last Week Patch # 1 La Salle (14) 280 1 1 2 Portsmouth 265 4 2 3 Hendricken 251 2 3 4 Cranston East 240 3 4 5 Johnston 220 5 5 6 Cumberland 209 6 8 7 Middletown 178 9 9 8 Tolman 172 t-10 6 9 Barrington 166 7 13 10 East Greenwich 149 t-10 11 11 Cranston West 116 13 7 12 Woonsocket 88 15 12 13 West Warwick 76 8 10 t-14 Mount Pleasant 70 17 19 t-14 St. Raphael 70 16 16 16 Central 68 18 17 17 Rogers 67 NR 18 18 Westerly 57 12 14 19 East Providence 48 14 15 20 Warwick Vets 46 NR NR

Dropped from the poll: No. 19 Moses Brown, No. 20 Shea.

Also receiving votes: Mt. Hope (29), South Kingstown (24), Hope (16), Shea (12), Moses Brown (8), Narragansett (2) and North Smithfield (2).

The Rhode Island Sports Media football poll is voted on by 14 local media members who regularly cover Rhode Island high school football. The poll is administrated and compiled by Eric Rueb of Southern Rhode Island Newspapers. Patch’s ballot is cast by Stephen Greenwell, the local editor of the South Kingstown and Narragansett site.

PATCH BALLOT

Rank Team Media Last Week 1 La Salle 1 2 2 Portsmouth 2 3 3 Hendricken 3 1 4 Cranston East 4 4 5 Johnston 5 5 6 Tolman 8 7 7 Cranston West 11 8 8 Cumberland 6 9 9 Middletown 7 10 10 West Warwick 13 6 11 East Greenwich 10 11 12 Woonsocket 12 13 13 Barrington 9 14 14 Westerly 18 12 15 East Providence 19 15 16 St. Ray's t-14 17 17 Central 16 18 18 Rogers 17 19 19 Mt. Pleasant t-14 NR 20 South Kingstown NR 20

There isn’t a whole lot of dissension between my ballot and the media results, at least not until you get to the down-ballot ranking of the Division I teams.

I tend to keep teams on unless they’re historically bad, since in inter-Division games (i.e. Division I vs. II), the better division wins almost all of them. I looked at the stats the past couple years, and the winning percentage was something like 75 to 85 percent, but I’ll re-check after the year to make sure that still syncs up.

Want to be e-mailed when there is a new football poll or football-related article? Click the “keep me posted!” button below.