EAST PROVIDENCE -- "We wanted to show everyone they should believe in us, just like the way we believed in ourselves."

Cameron Ford, East Providence High football player

You couldn't really blame people for doubting this year's East Providence High football team could win the state championship.

After all, this was a team without any established stars.

It was a team with a young quarterback being called upon to run a complicated offense.

It was a team that lost its first game of the season when it made a host of mistakes, then needed a last-second field goal to pull out a victory in its second game.

There were 160- and 170-pound guys in the middle of the defensive line playing against offensive linemen who often were more than 100 pounds heavier than them.

Heck, even their coach figured a lot of this year's starters would have had a hard time breaking into the starting lineup on East Providence's 2003 state championship team.

But sometimes it's more important what a bunch of teenagers believe they can do than what the form chart says they can do.

East Providence football teams have won seven Division I state championships over the last 30 years, but it's a safe bet that none of the title-game victories surprised -- or delighted -- the Townies' faithful more than yesterday's 35-13 triumph over Hendricken at Pierce Field.

In a sense, it was a coach's dream team. A team without stars that learned from its mistakes and wasn't afraid to do the work needed to improve.

"If you look at the defensive line as individuals, you would say maybe one could have started on our championship team of 2003, but collectively they played so well together. That's what this team did," said veteran East Providence coach Sandy Gorham.

"They came a long way. They really did," Gorham added.

The fact that they won the title by defeating the only team that had beaten them this season made it even a little sweeter for the Townies.

Hendricken handed East Providence what proved to be the Townies' only loss of the season when the Hawks posted a 30-22 triumph in the first league game of the season, in early September.

After that, however, the Townies reeled off nine straight Division I victories, highlighted by yesterday's triumph.

"This is too sweet," said Nate Lovett, the Townies' junior quarterback. "To come back in the Super Bowl against the only team that beat you this year and prove to them that we could take it is so sweet."

It may have been a team without stars, but it was loaded with teenagers who made outstanding contributions.

First there was Lovett. Midway through his sophomore season last year he was handed the job of running the complicated East Providence option offense. It's not an easy task for anyone, but it can be especially tough for a young quarterback. In the game against Hendricken earlier in the season he made a couple of mistakes that either stopped East Providence drives or gave Hendricken scoring opportunities.

But yesterday he was perfect in running the Townies' offense. He had no turnovers, and also scored East Providence's first touchdown, on a 12-yard run.

"We definitely learned from our mistakes," said Lovett.

Nobody exemplified the learning curve more than Jake Crowell.

He's the Townies' junior center. Most people never notice the center expect when he makes a bad snap. Against Hendricken in September he had some trouble getting the ball to Lovett in the shotgun. There were snaps that bounced along the ground, others that sailed over Lovett's head. But yesterday, Crowell was perfect.

"The snaps were absolutely fabulous today," said Lovett. "We didn't have one mishandled snap. It was just perfect today."

It was a group that shared both responsibility and the spotlight. It probably wasn't surprising that five players accounted for the five East Providence touchdowns.

"We just wanted to play as a team," said Ford, the 6-foot, 180-pound defensive end who was named the game's Most Valuable Player.

Yesterday, it was the defensive unit's second-half performance, when it shut out the Hawks, that gave the Townies' offense a chance to break away having managed a one-point (14-13) halftime lead.

It was a defensive unit that usually was outweighed but seldom outplayed.

On Thanksgiving, it held previously undefeated La Salle to eight points, and in the semifinal round of the playoffs it shut out North Kingstown, a team that had been averaging more than 30 points a game. Yesterday, it stopped Hendricken, a team that was coming off a 28-point performance against La Salle in a semifinal game on Tuesday.

"We're all just average kids with big hearts who want to play," said Ford.

And believed they could win a championship when nobody else did.

jgillool@projo.com / (401) 277-7340