La Salle’s Kendall Perry bursts past Portsmouth’s Alex Monteiro (53) and a host of other Patriot defenders during last night’s victory for the Rams at Cimini Field.

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

PROVIDENCE — They came hoping for an exciting game between two undefeated teams and the La Salle and Portsmouth football teams certainly didn’t disappoint the standing-room-only crowd that packed La Salle’s Cimini Field last night.

But in the end, Gus DelFarno, Kendall Perry and a season-defining defensive play were the difference for La Salle as the Rams posted a nail-biting 35-28 triumph

DelFarno and Perry, the Rams senior running back duo, combined for five touchdowns — three by DelFarno and two by Perry — as the Rams twice overcame seven-point deficits en route to their third Interscholastic League Division I victory in three league starts. The loss was Portsmouth’s first in three Division I games.

But even with DelFarno and Perry’s sensational running, the Rams needed a big defensive play with just under two minutes to play to preserve the victory.

Trailing, 35-21, with just under four minutes to play in the game, Portsmouth cut its deficit to seven on Remy Alves’ fourth touchdown of the game and Chris Gavin’s fourth conversion boot, then recovered an onside kick at the La Salle 40.

But about a minute later the La Salle defensive unit came up big when it stopped the Patriots inches short of a first down on fourth-and-3 just outside the La Salle 30.

“That was a great game. We have some tough kids this year,” La Salle coach Geoff Marcone said about the Rams’ ability to overcome deficits on three occasions, then preserve the victory with a big defensive play.

Portsmouth had taken 7-0 and 14-7 leads in the first quarter before La Salle pulled even early in the second quarter. The Rams then forged a 17-14 halftime lead on Colin Sullivan’s 27-yard field goal with four minutes to play before the break.

But Portsmouth came right back and regained the lead 24 seconds after the start of the second half when Alves took a shuttle-pass from quarterback C.J. Martensc and raced 59 yards for, what at the time, was his third touchdown of the game.

The Patriots were in front for only about two minutes, however, as five plays after the start of the ensuing series DelFarno tallied his second touchdown with a 17-yard dash.

Later in the third quarter, DelFarno increased the Rams lead to 29-21 with a 25-yard TD run.

Perry appeared to have taken the remaining suspense out of the game when he broke loose on a 68-yard touchdown run with 2:29 to play.

But last night nothing was certain until the final whistle.

Portsmouth was handed an early scoring opportunity when La Salle fumbled the opening kickoff and the Patriots didn’t waste any time taking advantage.

Portsmouth’s Pat Fagan recovered the kickoff fumble on the La Salle 32 and four plays later the Patriots were in the end zone. Alves tallied the touchdown on an eight-yard run and Gavin followed with the conversion giving Portsmouth a 7-0 lead just over two minutes after the opening kickoff.

But it only took La Salle about three minutes to deadlock the issue.

A 30-yard punt return by the Rams’ Luke Francis on La Salle’s second possession after the Portsmouth TD put the ball down to the La Salle 20 and on the next play DelFarno raced 20 yards for his first touchdown.

Four minutes later, however, Portsmouth was back in front when Alves scored his second touchdown on a 25-yard run. But shortly after the start of the second quarter Perry pulled La Salle even again with his first TD on a 16-yard run.

Portsmouth

14  0  7  7 — 28

La Salle

 7 10 18   0 — 35

Portsmouth scoring: Remy Alves 4 (8 run, 25 run, 58 pass from Martens, 6 run); conversions — Chris Gavin 4 (kicks).

La Salle scoring: Gus DelFarno 3 (20 run, 17 run,25 run), Kendall Perry 2 (6 run, 68 run); Field goal — Colin Sullivan (27 yds); Conversions – Sullivan 2 (kicks).

jgillool@projo.com