Week 7 R.I. high school football poll

For the first time all season, it’s unanimous. Rhode Island sportswriters have tabbed La Salle as the No. 1 high school football team in the state. The Rams have been No. 1 all season, but Barrington always garnered at least a couple first-place votes. Not this week. After losing to Bishop Hendricken, the Eagles fell to No. 4 — oddly enough one spot ahead of Hendricken, which jumped from 8 to 5.

With Barrington’s loss, East Providence moved up to the No. 2 spot, meaning four of the top five teams come from Division I. The only non-Division I team to crash the top 5 is South Kingstown, from II-B.

Middletown dropped a spot, from 6 to 7, after its win over Hope on Saturday. But the Islanders remain undefeated atop Division IV. Unfortunately, Middletown probably won’t reach the top 5 unless it can pull off a Thanksgiving Day win over Portsmouth.

Speaking of Portsmouth, after struggling through the murderous portion of their schedule, the Patriots beat St. Ray's 27-6 on Saturday and held strong at No. 12. Tiverton, which rolled past Smithfield 39-13, remains at No. 17.

The Barrington loss makes the Eagles’ Nov. 6 game against La Salle a little less interesting. But with all due respect to East Providence, those two very well could be headed for a D-I Super Bowl matchup.

Team Points Last week
1. La Salle (8) 160 1
2. East Providence 142 3
3. South Kingstown 136 5
4. Barrington 135 2
5. Hendricken 129 8
6. Mount Hope 113 11
7. Middletown 106 6
8. Ponaganset 99 9
9. Woonsocket 86 10
10. Cranston East 79 7
11. West Warwick 77 4
12. Portsmouth 73 12
13. Westerly 64 13
14. Coventry 60 16
15. Cranston West 57 14t
16. Johnston 53 14t.
17t. Moses Brown 29 17
17t. Tiverton 29 17
19. Cumberland 28 NR
20. St. Raphael 12 18

Dropped out (last week’s rank): Lincoln (20).

Others receiving votes: Hope 5, Classical 3, Lincoln 3, Mount Pleasant 1, Scituate 1

Participating publications: The Chariho Times, The Coventry Courier, The Cranston Herald, The East Greenwich Pendulum, The Narragansett Times, The Newport Daily News, The Northeast Independent, The North Kingstown Standard Times, The South County Independent, The Warwick Beacon, The Westerly Sun.