Hendricken’s Brandford Sowah will be one of the running backs Rhode Island will be counting on in its game against Connecticut Saturday night.

The Providence Journal / Kris Craig

Ten days isn’t much practice time to get an effective football running game in order, especially with a team of all-stars who have never played together.

But don’t be surprised if on Saturday night, when the Rhode Island high school senior all-star football team plays in the annual Connecticut-Rhode Island Senior All-Star game, the bus ride to East Hartford isn’t the only ground route the Rhode Islanders travel.

After all, if former La Salle star Liam Coen, the University of Massachusetts quarterback who has set just about every Minutemen passing record, couldn’t pass the Rhode Island stars to victory four years ago, what are the odds any Little Rhody quarterback can engineer a winning air attack?

Rhode Island will be looking for its first victory in six years when the 10th edition of the interstate series kicks off Saturday at 7 p.m. at Rentschler Field, the home of the University of Connecticut football team.

If anything, a Rhode Island running game should reduce the time the Connecticut stars have to score points. In the last two games, Connecticut has scored a total of 99 points, posting a 59-27 victory last year and a 40-21 triumph in 2006.

Rhode Island won three of the first five games in the series, but the last time Rhody won was in 2002, when the game was played at Pierce Field, in East Providence. Since then, every game has been played in Connecticut, including the last four at Rentschler, and Connecticut has dominated on its home turf. Back in 2004, when Coen was quarterbacking the Rhode Island team, Connecticut rolled to 52-14 victory.

Numbers alone put the Rhode Islanders at a serious disadvantage. Although each team has 55-player roster, the Rhode Island players come from a state with a population of 1 million, while Connecticut has a population of just under 3½ million.

But some talented runners on this year’s team might help the Rhode Islanders neutralize the population disadvantage. Included on the Rhode Island rosters are two first-team All-State running backs who rushed for 1,300 or more yards against Division I competition last fall — Hendricken’s Brandford Sowah and Rogers’ Bryan DeWitt.

Keith Kenyon, the North Kingstown coach who is serving as head coach of the Rhode Island stars this year, also has one of the fastest runners in New England on his roster in Hope’s Matt Washington. Washington, played only half the football season last fall for Hope, but he won the 100-, 200- and 400-meter championships at the recent Rhode Island state track championships.

Kenyon, however will have more than just outstanding running backs in his ground-game arsenal. One of the quarterbacks on this year’s team is Stanley Dunbar, the 5-foot-9, 180-pound quarterback who led St. Raphael to a state championship by running for 1,430 yards on 202 carries.

The Rhode Island defensive unit includes a host of 2007 All-Staters, including Neal Rooney, the La Salle’s 230-pound defensive end; Bobby Booth Hendricken’s 250-pound defensive lineman; and Will Lopes, Justin Rapp and Craig Argencourt, the trio of linebackers who keyed a St. Raphael defense that allowed a total of only six points in two playoff games.

jgillool@projo.com