Who has the best Thanksgiving game in RI? The answer is Westerly — and Thursday showed why

WESTERLY — Any questions about the intensity of the Westerly-Stonington Thanksgiving Day game were answered as the Bulldogs marched down Bellevue Ave. carrying a seven-foot stuffed bear — Stonington’s mascot — like they were taking it to an execution.

When you talk about Rhode Island high school football’s biggest Thanksgiving Day matchups, East Providence-La Salle and Cranston East-Cranston West traditionally topped any list. The people who’d mention those matchups first are probably the same folks who think a trip to Westerly requires a hotel stay.

Thursday’s game was a big one for so many different reasons. Stonington came in needing a win to qualify for the postseason — they do things differently in Connecticut — and if that wasn’t enough motivation, what happened last Thanksgiving certainly was. Westerly needed a win because, well, it’s Thanksgiving and as any player or coach, past or present, will tell you, Bulldogs eat Bear meat.

Westerly chomped plenty early, then some self-inflicted wounds helped Stonington turn a rout into a tie game heading into the fourth quarter. Terrell Hill led an old-school drive to put the Bulldogs back on top and the defense did the job from there, turning a tie game into a 51-30 win, Westerly’s sixth in a row over Stonington.

“That’s my first time playing in a Thanksgiving game and honestly, it feels unbelievable,” said Hill, who carried the ball 41 times for 223 yards and three touchdowns. “This game means more to us than anything. We talked about this game all year and we were just waiting for it to happen and we were ready to play.”

“We knew we had to keep it going,” said Romello Hamelin, who played in his first game and had two touchdowns in the first half. “From the beginning, everybody’s dunking their heads in water. We get fired up for this every single year.

“I’ve had siblings come through and tell me their stories. I knew how important it was.”

Thanksgiving Day football used to be important in a lot of communities, but — for a variety of different reasons — most have become more of a celebration of the players and community and less of a competitive game. Teams still want to win, but a loss on Thanksgiving Day won’t cause a meltdown over mashed potatoes.

The game is different for Westerly and Stonington. Ask Aaron Morrone, a volunteer for the Bulldogs, who didn’t hear much from brother Bryan — Stonington’s athletic director — during their Thanksgiving Day dinner after Westerly’s 55-0 win last year when the Bulldogs were accused of trying to run up the score late.

Ask Ron Sposato, Westerly’s first-year head coach, who remembers going through the interview process and being posed a question by athletic director Jamey Vetelino about which is more important — winning the Super Bowl or winning on Thanksgiving.

You can even ask Nancy Laffargue, who graduated from Stonington over 40 years ago and drove down from Cape Cod on Wednesday night in order to see her nephews play for the Bears. She wasn’t shy to explain in great detail about some shoddy officiating in her final game as a cheerleader for the Bears. She wanted to reserve a seat for her mother, so Laffargue made sure to be the first person in the stadium on Thursday, arriving just before 8 a.m.

Kickoff was set for 10.

“It’s a big tradition here and they don’t want to let tradition go, which is great,” said Sposato, who grimaces when talking about playing in a tie game in his final Thanksgiving game for Westerly in 1999. “Everybody loves football and they just want to come out and be a part of Friday nights and be a part of a game like this on Thursday morning.

“It’s just something everyone looks forward to all year.”

Landon Husereau has been looking forward to it since he was in fifth grade. The freshman quarterback remembers being a pee-wee player trying to wedge his way in front of adults standing in the back of the end zone so he could see what was happening on the field.

Senior Luke Nelson remembers being one of those players as well. Being a Bulldog matters and getting a chance to play in the biggest game of the year is treated more as a privilege than something you get to do just because you’re on the team.

“There’s no other game I’d want to be a part of. We have the best Thanksgiving game in the state,” Nelson said. “It’s an honor to be a part of this, representing this team and this town.”

The traditions surrounding the game start before Thanksgiving Week arrives.

Westerly has a week of themed school spirit days leading into the game. On Saturday, the junior varsity teams play. After the game, the Ice Cream Bowl — a relay of skills with an absurd amount of ice cream as the feature — takes place. On Monday, the host team’s rotary club hosts the school’s captains, administrators and former legends for a dinner. Tuesday is Rally Day, with the band and cheer teams performing as students arrive at school. When school starts, the band marches through the halls in a rally that closes the school day.

Tuesday night is another community gathering, with locals meeting at the Hilltop Café, where Westerly-based radio station WBLQ hosts a live show telling stories about the games of the past and interviews whoever happens to show up that night.

On Thursday morning, Vetelino, the coaching staff and invited guests arrive for breakfast at 7:15. Players start rolling in at 7:30 and any cobwebs in their heads or coal in their eyes are quickly washed away when they dunk their heads in a bucket filled with ice water before entering the locker room. In 2018, single-digit temps forced most of the state to move their Thanksgiving Day game to the previous night or the following day. Down in Westerly, players still dunked their heads in the bucket.

Players went through their typical warmups, with Stonington arriving shortly after 9 a.m. After warming up, both teams went back to their locker room for one last speech and to prepare for their entrance. It was a game of chicken between the programs; Stonington took its time to run out on the field, delaying Westerly’s walk from its locker room — which has been in the Babcock building since 2006 — around the school and down Bellevue Avenue and onto the field, replicating the walk Westerly players did from the 1930s until 2005.

At this point, the stadium was humming on both sides with the energy building on each snap. When Hamelin turned a first-down catch into a 73-yard touchdown, every Westerly fan wedged into the bleachers rose to their feet before Hamelin arrived in the end zone. Behind the back of the end zone, a large gathering of parents, former and future players waited for him to cross the goal line.

“Those are my guys. Those are all the seniors that graduated last year,” Hamelin said. “I saw them right there and I told them I was going to run to them if I scored.”

For anyone who experienced any of the East Providence-La Salle Thanksgiving Day clashes when that rivalry was in its heyday, the volume of the crowd and the energy emanating from it matched any of those games. That only made it scary to think about what Westerly-Stonington was years ago, when both schools were bigger.

It wasn’t the last big moment of the game. Westerly followed the touchdown with a stop and a touchdown drive that ended with a Hill score. After another stop, Hamelin — a basketball player who decided to come out for football in his senior season — came up with yet another big play, scoring on a 55-yard touchdown catch. The rout was on and the reaction from the crowd only confirmed Hamelin’s decision to play in his final season.

“As much I want it to be a basketball school,” he said, “everyone knows it’s a football school.”

Stonington had too much to play for to lay down and die. With last year’s shellacking on their minds, the Bears slowly played their way back into the game. It was 30-14 at halftime before Stonington turned two Westerly turnovers into touchdown drives, the last coming on a Patrick McGugan run as the clock hit zero in the third quarter.

“We had to bring all the guys and tell them to lock in,” Nelson said. “The sideline was so quiet, so we had to get everybody going, get back in the game and then finish it off here.”

A Westerly penalty — one of 13 — backed the Bulldogs up to their own 14. Hill took over from there, as Westerly went 86 yards on 16 plays. Hill racked up 62 yards on the drive, the last a 1-yard plunge for a 37-30 lead with 5:18 left in the game.

On Stonington’s first play from scrimmage, the ball was tipped at the line of scrimmage and picked by Michael Poole. Hill followed with a 14-yard touchdown run he won’t soon forget.

“It feels like you’re playing in the Super Bowl,” Hill said. “It feels like a big game. It feels like the playoffs all over again.”

In Westerly, the game is bigger than that.

If you want further proof, look no further than assistant coach Carlos Rios, who went 0-for-4 in the games during his time playing for the Bulldogs from 1990-1993. Those losses stung so much Rios didn’t want to be around the game anymore. He didn’t come back for 15 years.

In his first year as an assistant, the game mattered to Rios, who, with tattoo sleeves on both arms and chiseled physique, looks like he could still play middle linebacker and keep up with the kids on the field. In the locker room after the game, Rios fought off tears as he thanked the team for his first win over Stonington.

“This game is everything,” Nelson said. “Super Bowls are great, but this is better and I’m super happy to be a part of this.”

“I’ve never been to another Thanksgiving Day game and it would probably be a big let-down,” Sposato said. “I know there’s a couple of big ones still out there, but not like this.

“It’s so important to both towns and it’s such a big deal — and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Westerly 51, Stonington 30

First quarter

W – Romello Hamelin 73 pass from Landon Husereau (Drew Bozek kick), 11:07

W – Terrell Hill 4 run (Bozek kock), 6:37

W – Hamelin 55 pass from Husereau (kick fails), 2:16

Second quarter

S – Jayden Carter 16 run (Carter run), 11:20

W – Bozek 25 field goal, 7:24

W – Bozek 28 pass from Husereau (Bozek kick), 6:27

S – Cole Phelan 51 pass from Carter (run fails), 5:47

Third quarter

S – Ethan Mahoney 18 pass from Carter (Patrick McGugan run), 3:05

S – McGugan 5 run (Phelan from Carter), :00

Fourth quarter

W – Hill 1 run (Bozek kick), 5:18

W – Hill14 run (Bozek kick), 4:54

W – Husereau 2 run (Bozek kick), 1:26

TEAM STATISTICS

RUSHING – Stonington 24-23, Westerly 52-294. PASSING – Stonington 14-26-219, Westerly 12-23-251. TOTAL OFFENSE – 242, Westerly 545. FIRST DOWNS – Stonington 16, Westerly 24. FUMBLES-LOST – Stonington 3-1, Westerly 4-2. TOTAL TURNOVERS – Stonington 3, Westerly 3. PENALTIES – Stonington 2-20, Westerly 13-102. PUNTS-YARDS – Stonington 4-180, Westerly 0-0. TIME OF POSSESSION – Stonington 26:07, Westerly 21:53

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: Stonginton – Ethan Mahoney 9-47, TD; Patrick McGugan 1-5, TD; Max Massengale 1-3; Jayden Carter 13-(-32), TD, fumble. Westerly – Terrell Hill 41-223, 3 TDs, fumble; Romello Hamelin 5-45, fumble; Landon Husereau 4-20, TD; Eric Fusaro 1-5; Andre Adams 1-1.

PASSING: Stonington – Carter 14-25-219, 2 TDs, 2 INTs; Cooper Light 0-1-0. Westerly – Husereau 12-23-251, 2 TDs, INT.

RECEIVING: Stonington – Cole Phelan 3-77, TD; Mahoney 3-49, TD; Light 4-41; McGugan 2-26; Finn Eck 1-23; Massengale 1-3. Westerly – Hamelin 6-177, 2 TDs; Bozek 2-48, TD; Fusaro 3-20; Caleb Williams 1-6.