The Rogers, Middletown, Tiverton, Mt. Hope, and East Providence Co-op team, (RMTEB) traces its lineage back to the 2010-11 season when Middletown made the move from Division 3 to Division 2.  Over the ensuing 14 years, the Hurricanes and Patriots played 25 regular season games with Portsmouth winning just three of those contests.  Now in the fifteenth year of this one-sided rivalry, the teams met Saturday afternoon at the Abbey for the twenty-sixth time in the regular season to determine which squad would earn bragging rights for the next year as the best team on Aquidneck Island.

Portsmouth took control and dominated the game from the opening faceoff.  Halfway through the first period, senior Ben West opened the team’s scoring.  By the end of the second period, four other Patriots rang up unanswered tallies to give Portsmouth a commanding 5-0 lead.

The Hurricanes finally managed to get on the scoreboard four minutes into the third period.  The goal spoiled PHS goalie Johnny Cabral’s bid for his second shutout of the season, but it was a short-lived rally.  Cabral and the skaters in front of him shut down any further efforts by their opponent ensuring they had no chance of a comeback.  Ben West then capped the Patriots’ scoring with his second goal of the game midway through the final period to put the game on ice, so to speak.

The Aquidneck Island rivalry always brings out large crowds to see the games and one this was no exception.  Spectators packed the Abbey to near capacity to see the contest.  Enhancing interest in the game is the fact that it’s not just two schools competing.  It is the Patriots  against all the public schools surrounding Portsmouth.  RMT, last season’s three-team co-op version of the Hurricanes, was bolstered this season with the addition of the players from the former East Bay squad which had been comprised of players from Mt. Hope and East Providence.  The resulting five-school co-op team, the largest boys hockey team in the state, was formed by RIIL to ensure both programs would have enough players to effectively compete this season.  With fans and families from five schools plus Portsmouth rooting for their teams, it was the kind of crowd only this game could draw.

With six goals and 11 assists for PHS it was a good night for Patriots players.  Four Portsmouth skaters finished the game with three points each.  In addition to his two goals, Ben West also had an assist.  Chase Pascoe, Connor Rogers, and Shane Temple each had a goal and two assists.  Rounding out the goalscoring, Luke Brule had a goal and an assist to add two points to his season statistics.  Three other players, Finn O’Connor, Lucas Roberts, and Becket Snyder each added one assist to the winning effort.  Johnny Cabral had an outstanding game between the pipes making 21 saves on his way to earning his third win of the season. One final benefit of the conduct of the game was that all 21 skaters on the bench saw shifts on the ice, including several freshmen who made their first high school varsity game appearance,

Most rivalries develop among teams from a local area or due to some long-standing tradition that adds significance to the game.  Oftentimes, teams involved in rivalries grow to have a strong dislike for their counterparts, but that is not the case here  One unique aspect of the RMTEB - PHS game is that most of the players know each other well.  Many of them grew up playing hockey together for the Newport Whalers, or one of the other local programs in the state.  At times they skated together on the same teams while in other instances they played against each other.  Some are even friends off the ice.  But when the puck drops all that is put aside.  Everyone leaves it all on the ice in the effort to win and when it’s over they are friends again.

The win in this season’s regular season meeting for the two teams sets a positive trend for Portsmouth which has mostly been on the losing side of the competition in the past.  With a tie two years ago and a win last season, the Patriots have not lost in the last three games with the Hurricanes and it is the first time since the beginning of the rivalry that Portsmouth has strung together consecutive wins.  There is still a long way to go to even the series record, but a two-game winning streak is a good start.

The completion of the game marked one quarter of the way through the regular season for the team.  It was also the start of a very busy month with seven more games on the schedule in January - two per week!  To start off, the team will travel to the Boss Arena at the University of Rhode Island twice in the coming week.  First on Wednesday for a 6:30 game with the South Kingstown Rebels and again on Saturday to take on the Nariho Gulls at 8:15.  Head to URI and cheer for Portsmouth.

See you at the rink.