CRANSTON – That was Hendricken football.
Not all state championships are built like others. For most of this season, one didn’t seem to be in the cards for the Hawks. There were ups, there were downs and a lot of moments where Hendricken wasn’t living up to standard it created years ago.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBut in the end, it figured everything out.
In the semifinals the Hawks won a game they weren’t supposed to, earning a matchup with rival La Salle in the State Championship Super Bowl game it certainly wasn’t supposed to win either. But Hendricken did, doing it like the teams of old, with a dominant defensive performance and with Jeremy Seidi, the state’s best player, who did what needed to be done in a 13-3 win over the Rams that gave the Hawks their third straight state title.
“It’s always great winning your senior year with my brothers over here,” said Seidi, who was named MVP of the game for the second straight year. “It’s definitely a great feeling and I just love my guys.”“It means everything,” Hendricken senior linebacker Lincoln Tiernan said. “There were a lot of questions about what our capabilities were and to come out here and keep them to three points, which we couldn’t do previously in the season, was everything.”
Hendricken Wins Super BowlGraduation losses and All-Staters heading to prep school to improve their chances at being recruited left Hendricken with a young and inexperienced roster.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWhile the Hawks have long been hated by the rest of the state, Keith Croft’s program set the standard for how teams are supposed to play football. Accountability. Respect. We before me.
After an overtime loss to La Salle, it looked like the program had lost sight of these things – and having an assistant coach racing over to cuss out officials after the game certainly didn’t help. The Hawks’ unsportsmanlike reaction – both players and assistant coaches – toward Portsmouth following a dramatic comeback win brought more questions into the mix. Were the Hawks more interested in trash talk and social media clips? Or actually winning a championship?
“There were a lot of team meetings – players only,” Tiernan said. “Talking amongst each other, it was our culture. It’s brotherhood. It’s leaning on each other when things get hard.”
“We knew what we were and we knew what we had to be,” Seidi said. “We knew we had the skills, we just had to put it all together. It took practice, long hours – and we got it done.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWhen the postseason hit, things changed. Hendricken’s buttoned-up approach was back in a 23-0 win over St. Raphael in the quarterfinals and the Hawks played what looked like their best game of the season in a 38-34 win at North Kingstown in the semifinals.
Turns out they were just saving the actual best for last.
Cars piled into the parking lot at Cranston Stadium before 5 p.m. and the atmosphere at the game was beyond electric. These moments can eat teams alive, but these are the moments Hendricken lives for.
The defensive contributions set the tone. Hendricken’s secondary was picked apart by North Kingstown and going up against Sam Perry and La Salle – which had over 300 yards in the air in their semifinal – slowing the passing attack was key.
Dmitri Johnson, Hendricken FootballIt wasn’t a one-man job. Hendricken received a boost to the lineup with the return of 6-foot-4, 230-pound Elijah Guertin, who broke his wrist a few weeks earlier and decided to club up his left hand and give it a go.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementGuertin, Dmitri Johnson, Zion Hightower, Leshawn Hall and Ryan Santo provided steady pressure, giving Perry little time to work. La Salle was short a third receiver – Jalen Moseley was injured in the semifinal and couldn’t play – and Hendricken schemed it great, doubling All-Stater Antonio Bearden and letting its All-Stater, Jabari Jackson, handle Jayden Givens most of the night.
Lincoln Tiernan, Hendricken FootballThe pressure created risky throws and, ahead 6-3 early in the second quarter, safety Rollins Sonpon came up with an interception. Hendricken’s ensuing drive ending with a pick by La Salle’s Donald Young, but on the first play from scrimmage the Hawks’ got the play of the game when Lincoln Tiernan made a great read and jumped Perry’s pass and went 32 yards for the score and a 13-3 lead with 3:09 left in the third.
“It was nothing really. I saw him leak out, I saw him turn that way and just broke on it,” Tiernan said. “It goes back to the drills we do every day in practice.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“I saw green grass and I was going for it.”
While there was a lot of football left to play, there really wasn’t. The defense played mistake-free football all night and wasn’t about to give up a big play and with Seidi in the backfield, it wasn’t hard to see what the final 15 minutes would look like.
Jeremy Seidi, Hendricken FootballSeidi was impressive from start to finish on Friday and he made plays an All-Stater is supposed to.
La Salle took a 3-0 lead on a Quincy Marino field goal with 6:08 left in the second quarter. Seidi made his first huge play of the night catching a tipped pass on a third-and-11 play for a 25-yard gain that kept the drive going.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementNo one else touched the ball the rest of the way. Seidi slowly and steadily picked up the yards, a four-yards-and-a-cloud-of-rubber-pellets approach. Seidi carried the ball from the 10 to the 2 and while he didn’t quite get in on the first go, he wasn’t going to miss the second and sent Hendricken into the locker room ahead 6-3.
Seidi was a beast on both sides of the ball. He finished his night with 24 carries for 164 yards and a touchdown and on defense, showed off his coverage skills and ability to overpower linemen and get to the quarterback. Seidi handled the pressure of being the state’s best player in the biggest game and forever stamped his legacy among the Hendricken’s greats with his second straight MVP performance.
“I knew I had to have a big day, but I knew I had teammates supporting me,” Seidi said. “I had my o-line supporting me, [Isaiah] Brito supporting me, Jabari [Jackson], Rollins [Sonpon], Jeremy Dennis.
“… I’m just glad all them boys played with me.”
La Salle Blaze Coogan with coach at halftime.There was disappointment on the La Salle side, not just in the result but in the execution that led to the result. Dan Koppen energized the program in a way that can be tough for a first-year coach replacing a legend and turned the Rams into the state’s best and most consistent team.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFriday, La Salle picked the worst time to not have it’s A game. The loss won’t define the season, but will only serve as a lesson to what it takes to win a title.
“I love this team. All of these guys, they worked so hard and that’s what I was telling them after the game,” Perry said. “We worked too hard to feel sorry for ourselves. Obviously this one didn’t go our way, but I’m just proud of how hard we fought this year.”
“They played hard all season. They played hard tonight,” Koppen said. “I’m not going to take that away from them, but I want them to remember this feeling and use it this offseason.”
Rollins Sonpon, Hendricken FootballHendricken will remember the feeling of this game for a while. The program has found a variety of way to win championships, but Friday’s win was different because it wasn’t expected. It was earned.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“We started from the ground up. Half of our seniors now, we were playing as sophomores,” Sonpon said. “It’s the relationships, the brotherhood. You can’t bury something that comes from the dirt.
“We kept us going, kept the brotherhood going.”
Hendricken 13, La Salle 3
Hendricken 0 6 7 0 - 13
La Salle 0 3 0 0 - 3
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSecond quarter
LSA - Quincy Marino 29 field goal, 6:08
H - Jeremy Seidi 1 rush (kick fails), :10
Third quarter
H- Lincoln Tiernan 32 interception return (Xavier Calderon kick), 3:09
TEAM STATISTICS
RUSHING – Hendricken – 33-243, La Salle 11-34. PASSING – Hendricken 4-13-35, La Salle 17-41-121. TOTAL OFFENSE – Hendricken 278, La Salle 155. FIRST DOWNS – Hendricken 13, La Salle 10. TIME OF POSSESSION – Hendricken: 28:32, La Salle: 19:10.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Hendricken - Jeremy Seidi 24-164-1; Jeremy Dennis 4-62; Isaiah Brito 7-15; Ryan Santo 1-11; Rollins Sonpon 1-5; Jabari Jackson 4-(-10); Team 2-(-4). La Salle - Blaze Coogan 4-4; Sam Perry 6-22; Team 1-(-2)
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementPASSING: Hendricken - Isaiah Brito 4-13-35. La Salle – Sam Perry 17-41-121.
RECEIVING: Hendricken - Jackson 3-10; Seidi 1-25. La Salle - Jaden Givens 3-28; Blaze Coogan 6-26; Antonio Bearden 5-61; Kobe Downing 2-1; Donald Young 1-5.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Score from Hendricken win over La Salle in 2025 RIIL State Championship
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