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Revs edge RIFC in US Open Cup thriller at Pawtucket. Here’s how
Revs beat RIFC in penalty kicks in US Open Cup thriller at Centreville Bank Stadium
WATCH: RIFC coach Khano Smith ‘proud’ of his team in loss to Revolution
The New England Revolution beat Rhode Island FC in penalty kicks on Tuesday, April 14. The Revs move on to the Round of 16 in the US Open Cup.
PAWTUCKET – The final result was all that eluded Rhode Island FC on this showdown Tuesday night against the New England Revolution.
The effort over 120 minutes couldn’t be questioned. No keeper was saving the goal scored by Diego Fagundez. JJ Williams provided an equalizer in the 11th minute of stoppage time, proof that his side never gave up hope in the second half of regulation.
Penalty kicks were required to decide this Round of 32 meeting in the US Open Cup on April 14, and it was only there where Rhode Island FC came up shy. Donovan Parisian stopped three of the four shots against him and Tanner Beason blasted home the deciding attempt to give New England a 1-1 (3-1) victory against a regional rival.
The Revolution are through to the Round of 16 just like at Centreville Bank Stadium last season, but this was a different sort of match entirely in front of 6,073 fans. Rhode Island FC came to life after an indifferent first half of regulation, pulled even in the 101st minute and looked the more likely of the two sides to win it in the first 15-minute period of extra time. New England was able to stay the course and avoided an upset as the MLS entry.
“Soccer’s a cruel game sometimes,” Rhode Island FC coach Khano Smith said. “No disappointment on my end. I’m so proud of my team.”
Hamady Diop found the net on the opening shootout attempt for Rhode Island FC, the only player to do so in what could have been a five-round format. The Revolution wrapped it up early when Luca Langoni, Andrew Farrell and Beason all converted from the spot. Parisian dove to his right to deny Jojea Kwizera and twice to his left to stop Leo Afonso and Williams.
“We train them a lot, honestly,” Williams said. “It’s very hard to replicate. It is.”
Each team enjoyed one real chance in extra time. Grant Stoneman cleared off the line for Rhode Island FC after keeper Koke Vegas got a finger on a Langoni shot from the right wing. Parisian was in the right place at the center of his goal to catch a Williams header chest high, an opening created when Aldair Sanchez made room for a cross off the left.
“I could go on for minutes talking about the positives,” Smith said. “But for me, if we’re able to play like that, we’re going to win a lot of matches in USL Championship playing that way.”
Amos Shapiro-Thompson’s yellow card for Rhode Island FC was the only noteworthy development through the opening 45 minutes. Both teams were a bit cagey and heavy-legged after playing league matches on Saturday, and a 0-0 tie into the break was just about right. New England needed less than six minutes out of the locker room to pull ahead, as a deep Peyton Miller cross off the left was headed down by Damario McIntosh and thumped home by Fagundez from the top of the penalty area.
“I think we’re all very happy with how we fought,” Rhode Island FC defender Hugo Bacharach said. “We knew we had a great rival in front of us. We thought we could take them down.”
Smith made three attacking substitutions within the next three minutes – Williams, Kwizera and Afonso were summoned from the bench to spark the front line. Parisian got down quickly to his left to deny Afonso in the 82nd minute before Williams struck for the tying goal. Diop’s searching ball off the left was deflected and Williams was quickest to react, placing his header inside the near post to erase a 1-0 deficit.
“They’re playing in our stadium,” Williams said. “Technically it’s a home game for them, but we had all the energy and momentum from that point on.”
Smith said his players would have at least the next two days off after some covered more than 10 miles in the match. Charleston Battery visit next Wednesday night as Rhode Island FC gets back to league play. The club picked up its first USL Championship win over the weekend thanks to a 3-1 triumph at Lexington SC.
“Their keeper made three great saves,” Smith said. “They’d obviously done their homework. He was excellent.
“He made the difference. That’s all it was.”
Rhode Island FC (1): JJ Williams; assist – Hamady Diop.
New England Revolution (1): Diego Fagundez; assist – Damario McIntosh.
Halftime – 0-0. End of regulation – 1-1. End of extra time – 1-1. Penalty shootout – RIFC 1 (Diop), NER 3 (Luca Langoni, Andrew Farrell, Tanner Beason).
Shots – RIFC 10, NER 8. Saves – Koke Vegas, RIFC, 0; Donovan Parisian, NER, 2. Attendance – 6,073.
bkoch@providencejournal.com
On X: @BillKoch25
New East Bay Bike Path bridges are open and ready for bikes
What’s it like to ride over the new East Bay Bike Path bridges? We sent a reporter to try them out.
I’ve long thought bike paths are among Rhode Island’s premier attractions, up there with the beaches, the mansions and the bay.
We like to knock government, but credit where it’s due, the state has done an amazing job building out an incredible pedaling network.
It’s clearly a priority.
At least I thought it was.
But they’ve just dropped the ball on what should have been a beautiful new stretch.
The plan was to finish a mile-long connector from the East Providence end of the Henderson Bridge all the way to the East Bay Bike Path.
There was even $25 million set aside to get it done.
Except WPRI recently reported that it’s now been canceled.
The main fault lies with the Trump administration, which is no friend of bike paths, and moved to kill that $25 million.
But it gets complicated, as government funding always does.
To try to rescue that money, the state DOT reportedly worked with the administration to refunnel it into a road project. Specifically, the $25 million will now be spent helping upgrade the mile-long highway between the Henderson Bridge and North Broadway in East Providence, turning it into a more pleasant boulevard.
That totally sounds worthy.
But it’s insane to throw away the bike path plan.
Especially for a particular reason in this case.
They’d already put a ton of money into starting it.
When state planners designed the new Henderson Bridge between the East Side and East Providence, they included a bike path.
It’s a beauty – well protected from traffic by a barrier, a great asset for safely riding over the Seekonk River.
The plan was to continue it another mile or so along East Providence’s Waterfront Drive, ultimately connecting with the East Bay Bike Path, which runs all the way to Bristol. Which, by the way, is one of the nicest bike paths you’ll find anywhere.
But alas, that connector plan has been canceled.
So the expensive stretch over the Henderson Bridge to East Providence is now a bike path to nowhere. Once the bridge ends, the path on it continues a few hundred yards or so and then, just … ends.
Too bad.
We were so close.
Most of the stories on the issue have been about the complex negotiation to rescue the $25 million by rerouting it to that nearby highway-to-boulevard project. But I don’t want to get lost in the weeds of that bureaucratic process here because it loses sight of the heart of this story.
Which is that an amazing new addition to one of the nation’s best state bike path systems has just been scrapped.
You can knock the Rhode Island government for blowing a lot of things.
The PawSox.
The Washington Bridge.
But they’ve done great with bike paths.
And especially, linking many of them together.
Example: not too many years ago, Providence bikers had to risk dicey traffic on the East Side to get to the more pleasant paths in India Point Park and on the 195 bridge to the East Bay Path.
But the state fixed that by adding an amazing connector that starts behind the Salvation Army building and beautifully winds along the water of the Seekonk River for a mile or so.
That makes a huge difference – and no doubt has avoided some bike-car accidents.
We were close to a comparable stretch on the other side of the river – that’s what the $25 million would have done.
But it’s now apparently dead.
Online commenters aren’t happy about it.
On a Reddit string, “Toadscoper” accused the state of being “complicit” with the feds in rerouting the money from bikes to cars.
And there was this fascinating post from FineLobster 5322, who apparently is a disappointed planner who worked on the project: “Mind you money has already been spent on phase one so rejecting it at this point is wasting money and also against the public interest … but what do I know? I only worked on the project as an engineer … I didn’t get into this to build more highways. I do it … to give back to communities and give them more access to their environment.”
Wow. One can imagine the state planning team is devastated. That’s not a small consideration. Good people go into government to make life better in Rhode Island, and it’s a bad play to take the spirit out of the job by first assigning a great human-scale project and then, after a ton of work, trashing it.
A poster named Homosapiens simply said, “We just accept this?”
Hopefully not.
The first stretch of the path over the Henderson Bridge is done, money already sunk.
What a shame to leave that as a path to nowhere.
It doesn’t have to happen.
Between Governor McKee and our Washington delegation, there’s got to be a way to get this done.
There’s got to be.
mpatinki@providencejournal.com
WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — Two people are dead and another person seriously hurt after a crash involving two vehicles on the highway in Warwick Saturday.
Rhode Island State Police said the crash happened around 1:34 p.m. on the ramp from Route 113 West to I-95 South.
According to police, a Hyundai SUV that was driving in the middle lane of the highway started to drift to the right, crossed the first lane, and then crossed onto the on-ramp lane. The car struck the guardrail twice before driving through the grass median.
The Hyundai then struck the driver’s side of a Mercedes SUV that was on the ramp, causing the Mercedes to roll over and come to a rest. The impact sent the Hyundai over the guardrail and down an embankment.
The driver of the Hyundai, a 73-year-old man, and his passenger, a 69-year-old woman, were both pronounced dead at the hospital.
A woman who was in the Mercedes was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital in critical condition.
State police said all lanes of traffic were reopened by 4:30 p.m.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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Watch 12 News Now on WPRI.com or with the free WPRI 12+ TV app.
A federal judge on Friday tossed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit aiming to force Rhode Island to hand over its voter information as part of the Trump administration’s push to acquire voter data from several states.
Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy wrote that federal law does not allow the DOJ “to conduct the kind of fishing expedition it seeks here,” siding with Rhode Island election officials. She added that the DOJ did not provide evidence to suggest that Rhode Island violated election law.
McElroy, a Trump appointee, wrote that she sided with the similar decision in Oregon. That decision ruled that the DOJ was not entitled to unredacted voter registration lists.
“Absent from the demand are any factual allegations suggesting that Rhode Island may be violating the list maintenance requirements,” she said in her ruling.
Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore (D) praised McElroy’s decision. He said in a statement that the Trump administration “seems to have no problem taking actions that are clear Constitutional overreaches, regularly meddling in responsibilities that are the rights of the states.”
“Today’s decision affirms our position: the United States Department of Justice has no legal right to – or need for – the personally-identifiable information in our voter file,” he said. “Voter list maintenance is a responsibility entrusted to the states, and I remain confident in the steps we take here in Rhode Island to keep our list as accurate as possible.”
The Hill reached out to the DOJ for comment.
The DOJ called for the voter lists as it investigated Rhode Island’s compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which allowed Americans to register to vote when they apply for a driver’s license.
The DOJ sued at least 30 states, as well as Washington, D.C., in December demanding their respective voter data. This data includes birth dates, names and partial Social Security numbers.
At least 12 states have given or said they will give the DOJ their voter registration lists, according to a tracker operated by the Brennan Center for Justice.
The department stated after it lost a similar suit against Massachusetts earlier this month that it had “sweeping powers” to access the voter data and that, if states fail to comply, courts have a “limited, albeit vital, role” in directing election officers on behalf of the administration to produce the records. The DOJ cited the Civil Rights Act as being intended to unearth alleged election law violations.
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