Barrington’s Michael Read, who finished with 211 all-purpose yards in the game, breaks away from the tackle of East Providence’s Justin Parker for a gain during first-half action last night’s game at Pierce Memorial Field.

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The Providence Journal / Ruben W. Perez

BARRINGTON — While others may have looked at Barrington’s 1-7 record last season and seen nothing but failure, Eagles football coach Bill McCagney was able to look beyond the numbers. What he saw was promise.

“We started six sophomores on both sides of the ball last year, and we were competitive,” he said. “We were in people’s faces. We just couldn’t pull games out. There wasn’t one game we were out of all season. We lost by a touchdown here, a touchdown there, one point here, one point there.”

McCagney and his coaching staff gave a lot of pep talks to their young players last year, keeping their morale up and assuring them that they had the potential to do some special things in the future.

It appears the future is now. First-year starting quarterback Stephen Crawford threw for more than 200 yards, including three touchdown passes, and fellow junior running back Michael Read finished with 211 all-purpose yards, catching a 62-yard touchdown pass and rushing for another, as the Eagles kept their unbeaten streak intact with a 35-7 victory over East Providence in last night’s Division I matchup at Pierce Memorial Stadium.

“You made a statement tonight,” McCagney could be heard telling his players following the decisive win, which improved Barrington’s record to 3-0. “Great job this week. I’m proud of you guys. I can’t believe it.”

“This was a good team and we beat them pretty good,” McCagney said later. “I didn’t know if we were ready coming in. I didn’t know if the guys were ready; they were kind of just going through the motions last week. But they were blocking the right people, so I guess they were ready at game time.”

Barrington got right down to business last night, getting on the scoreboard midway through the first quarter. Crawford capped off the 6-minute, 58-yard scoring drive with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Stephen Goniprow.

East Providence responded with a 75-yard drive, evening the score with Aaron Spivey’s 10-yard touchdown run with just under two minutes to go in the quarter.

But Barrington needed less than a minute and a half to regain the lead, as Read caught a 62-yard pass from Crawford, sprinting down the right side and into the end zone.

An illegal blocking penalty negated what would have been a nifty touchdown run by Marc DeSisto with 3:45 remaining in the second quarter.

No matter. A short time later, Read scampered 10 yards for another Barrington TD.

On East Providence’s next possession, the Eagles’ Austin Brown recovered a fumble at midfield and Crawford connected on a 56-yard pass to David Sylvia in the end zone to send Barrington into the break with a 28-7 advantage.

“Our strength just took over,” McCagney said. “Read, all those guys. (Crawford) did a good job passing. We hit the open guy. We knew coming in that we had to hit those short, accurate passes, and that’s what he’s doing. He’s doing a great job running the team. I don’t think we had any turnovers again. We’ve got about two on the season and they’re both by our backup tailback at the end of the game. I think we’re leading turnovers about 14-2 now. So Crawford did a nice job. … The defense stepped up. Special teams were good. Everything’s clicking right now.”

An interception by Adam Snow near the 10-yard line, which he returned to the Eagles’ 43, led to Barrington’s final scoring drive, which DeSisto capped with a two-yard run in the opening minute of the fourth quarter.

“We just played well, just clicked all together,” Crawford said. “The offensive line really protected well for me. I haven’t been touched in two games, so the credit goes to them.

“It’s been a tough few years, but these juniors and seniors really stepped up this year, including the underclassmen, also,” he added. “We just want to get back to the top, so we put in a lot of hard work in the offseason and it’s paid off so far.”

cthorn@projo.com