WOOD RIVER JCT. — The Chariho boys soccer team showed great promise after shutting out Stonington, 1-0, to win the early-season Piver Cup last September.
That looked like it was going to be Chariho’s signature win of an up-and-down 10-7-1 regular season, which included two 1-0 losses to 11th-place Westerly.
But Charger coach Brian Williams and his squad had a second wind. Chariho opened post-season with a payback 1-0 win over Westerly. After some top-Division II seeds were upset early, Chariho found a path to the finals where they ran into a senior-stocked North Providence.
It goes without saying that Chariho, a team with two seniors, was an underdog against a team it lost to 3-0 a month earlier. What the Chargers did have, however, was recent championship pedigree, having won two RIIL D2 titles since 2002.
“We had lost four or five games and heads were dropping,” second-year coach Brian Williams said about the team’s slump. “There’s so much we went through – a lot of motivational speaking and even asking individual players to sit there and tell us what they’re afraid of on the field and what makes them uncomfortable, even asking for advice anonymously to try to help.”
Chariho stuck together against favored North Providence during a driving rain in the finals to force penalty kicks after a scoreless regulation and overtimes. The Chargers won 5-2 on PKs as goalie Connor Prescott came up huge.
Chariho’s third RIIL championship in five years ranks as the top story of the Chargers’ 25-’26 athletic season. It was Chariho’s fourth boys soccer title and third in Division II. Chariho won a Division I crown in 2009.
Chariho’s championship was the epitome of a team effort. The Chargers did not place one player as All-State. Only defender Ethan McCann was a Division II FIrst team pick. Luca Fusaro was second team. Still, a seven-loss team stood on the victors’ podium in the final.
“We just kept plugging away, plugging away until we got hot late in the year,” Williams said “We stuck together.”
Chariho produced a number of quality teams, even great ones, despite not winning any other RIIL titles. The Chargers’ softball team made history by posting the program’s first undefeated regular season (20-0). Arguably Chariho’s best team, the Chargers reached the Division I finals before losing to dynasty La Salle Academy, which has won four of the last five DI crowns.
Pitcher-hitter Adrianna Jeannenot was dominant, winning Gatorade State Player of the Year honors after her 22-2 record. Jeannenot returns as a senior next year as Chariho looks to claim its first RIIL softball title.
RIIL Hall of Fame coach Bill Habarek produced his usual quality teams. The boys’ cross country team went 9-1 to give Habarek a 195-20 record since 2005. The girls’ cross country team debuted a budding star in freshman Meriden Alge, who would go on to win an indoor track state titles in the 1000.
There were other notable achievements in Chariho sports.
The boys’ basketball team posted its most wins (14) under first-year coach Mike Gleason, a former Chariho assistant and long-time Westerly coach, since winning the ’15-’16 title.
Chariho’s baseball team posted a winning season (14-6) and featured the Division II Player of the Year in Landon Sumner.
Chariho’s 4×800 relay team of Gus Freelove, Leo Haxton, Ethan McCann and Isaac Graham was second in the RIIL meet and went on to finish sixth in the New England meet to earn All-New England status.
Also in boys track, freshman Anderson Chapman set records in the 100 and helped anchor a school record-setting 4×100 relay team with Brendan Gleason, Mitch Creamer and William Pitt-Coombs.