Defending champs and high hopes: Newport County teams kick off football season

PORTSMOUTH – Thursday night was the unofficial-official start of the high school football regular season .

The Portsmouth-hosted injury fund games saw the Patriots, Middletown, Rogers and Tiverton in action as Newport County kicked off the 2024 season. The Islanders and Tigers drew, 7-7, and Portsmouth ousted Rogers, 19-0, in the abbreviated contests.

But final scores won’t truly matter until next week. Getting back on the field after weeks of double sessions is the ultimate prize.

“Last year [Rogers] took it to us, and they beat us,” Portsmouth coach Keith MacDonald said. “This year I was just looking for energy. I was looking for energy, and they did a great job.”

Here's a look at the injury fund scrimmages in Portsmouth:

Tiverton, Middletown finish knotted

Only in Week 0 would you get a low-scoring draw.

But every team is still working their way through the preseason and defense usually paces the offense to start the year. And the abbreviated scrimmage – four 10-minute quarters with a running clock – doesn’t help the game’s flow.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Middletown coach Matt Kestler said. “That was apparent to us, but we’ve got a lot of inexperience after graduating so many guys. It didn't go quite as well as I thought it would early on, but we did make some plays.”

Middletown, which moved to Division II this season after capturing the D-III crown last fall, struck first on a 28-yard strike from Dawson McGowan to Patrick Cranson for a 7-0 lead with 2:17 left in the second quarter.

“I'm sure if we would have kept going, they would have kind of settled in a little bit,” Kestler said. “But it is what it is and we came out unscathed. We're going to have film and we're going to have a lot of great teaching points.”

Tiverton answered with a 25-yard touchdown as Austin Silvia found Brendan Sowa on a slant with 2:53 left in regulation. The Tigers, with plenty of size up front, will compete in Division IV.

Portsmouth tops Rogers

It was the Patriots’ night on their home turf.

Portsmouth marched down the field on its first drive and capped the sequence with an 18-yard touchdown rush by Tristan Conheeny off the right side. The Patriots got bumped up to D-I this fall after a 3-3 campaign last season.

“I wanted people flying around like their hair was on fire and I got that tonight,” MacDonald said. “That was one of my key things tonight.”

Portsmouth lost its injury fund contest to Rogers last fall and hopes that it can roll the success of Week 0 into the regular season opener vs. South Kingstown. Adam Conheeny and Joseph Sanderson added touchdown runs of two and 50 yards to end the night.

“It was everybody, it was a great team effort,” MacDonald said. “And that's what I preach. I'm not an individual guy, I'm a team guy.”

Rogers opens at Middletown on Friday, Sept. 13 at 6 p.m. at Gaudet Middle School.

jrousseau@providencejournal.com

On X: @ByJacobRousseau

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Defending champs and high hopes: Newport County teams kick off football season