Brother Rice's offense is back

Updated: March 22, 2011 4:14PM

Shut out last week in its Catholic Blue opener against St. Rita, Brother Rice had plenty of offense Friday night to earn a 26-18 victory over visiting Providence.

‘‘We learned some things from the Rita game,'' Brother Rice coach Steve Nye said. ‘‘We learned what it takes to compete in the conference and what a tough conference it is.''

Providence, meanwhile, is winless and needs to win five games in a row to make the playoffs and still has powerhouses St. Rita and Mount Carmel on the schedule.

‘‘That's true,'' said Providence coach Mark Coglianese, whose team was Class 6A runner-up last season. ‘‘It's playoff time. You lose and you're done.''

Brother Rice (3-1, 1-1) had a goal-line stand at the end of the game as Providence (0-4, 0-2) tried to cap a fourth-quarter comeback.

Cody Weaver scored on a 14-yard shovel pass from quarterback Joe Houlihan (9-of-17, 100 yards) and Dan Potempa had the two-point conversion run to make it 26-18 with 4:38 to play.

Providence got the ball back with 2:34 left and drove to the 4-yard line before Potempa (33 carries, 153 yards) was stopped by the middle of the Brother Rice defense at the 1-yard line on fourth down.

Providence running back Andrew Hoffmeister suffered a neck injury late in the third quarter and had to be immobilized on a stretcher.

‘‘He was moving some limbs and he was talking,'' Coglianese said.

Rice's lead was cut to 19-10 just before halftime when Providence put together a 16-play, 56-yard drive that took seven minutes of the second quarter. The 5-foot-11, 220-pound Potempa bulled in from three yards out with 18.1 left in the half.

Rice led 12-0 in the first quarter after Charlie Finn returned the opening kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown and an eight-play, 61-yard drive that culminated with an 8-yard scoring run by Andrew Walker.

Walker later scored on a 79-yard screen pass to give Rice a 26-10 lead with 1:01 left in the third quarter.

With three returning starters on the offensive line and Houlihan back at quarterback, the 2010 season once looked promising for the Celtics.

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