PROVIDENCE — The Woonsocket girls delivered another championship to their economically battered city Sunday night when they defeated Tolman, 5-0, in the MetLife Soccer Classic Girls Division IV Championship at Rhode Island College.

The Villa Novans beat the Tigers for the second consecutive season and finished with a 17-0-1 record. Tolman, playing in its fourth consecutive final, finished 14-2-2. The Tigers were the 2007 D-IV champions.

A bench-clearing scuffle in the final minute, the aftermath of a collision between two players, resulted in punches being thrown and the referee ending the game at that point.

As the post-game awards ceremony was beginning, pushing and shoving in the grandstand between fans of the two teams caused Tom Mezzanotte, executive director of the Rhode Island Interscholastic League, to end the ceremony immediately. He had already presented the runner-up plaque to Tolman so he handed the championship plaque and a bag of medals to Woonsocket coach Kathy Fagnant and a bag of runner-up medals to someone from the Tolman coaching staff.

Mezzanotte then ordered each team to remain at its respective bench until the grandstand and parking lots cleared.

Fagnant was upset at the way the game ended and that her team did not receive the recognition it deserved.

“Two girls ruined it for everyone,” she said. “We’re both physical teams. I don’t know how the banter went, but things got out of control.”

“We’ve always had a rivalry with them,” said Woonsocket midfielder Brooke Coderre, one of six seniors on the team and the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

Many of the Woonsocket players were on the 2008 team and several were on the championship basketball team, Woonsocket’s first, last winter. Coderre was the MVP of that tournament as well.

“I was talking to Sam Landry (winger and captain) about how special it is to play for your hometown, play for your fans, make everybody proud. Coach told us that if we don’t do it for ourselves, then do it for our parents, who give us so much support, and for our friends.”

She noted the sizable contingent from Woonsocket, led buy a group of bare-chested boys with the letters of the city painted on their chests.

Four different Woonsocket players scored. Defender Allyson Cartier got the first when she drilled a direct kick low to the right side, beating the Tolman keeper Jennifer Boisclair at 5:41. Winger Krislyn Godin made it 2-0 at 19:34 when she knocked the ball into an empty net after Boisclair had come out to her right to smother the crossing pass from Landry. Kristin Cahill connected on a shot from the left at 58:27, and Nicole Boucher blasted one home 21 seconds later. Cahill scored again at 77:56.

Keeper Kayla Cullerton earned the shutout.