The Pilgrim football team cruised to a 42-0 win over visiting Smithfield during its senior night celebration in front of the Patriots home crowd.

Pilgrim took a slim 2-0 lead into the second quarter after a Smithfield safety, but cruised the rest of the way to earn its most dominant win of the season.

“We practiced really hard this week. We needed everyone firing on all cylinders this week and we were trying our best all night long and it worked out,” said Pilgrim’s Demitiri Ayres, who rumbled for two rushing touchdowns in the win.

After taking the 2-0 lead, Pilgrim quarterback Mike Borges rushed for a touchdown to make it 9-0 early in the second. Ayres would score his first touchdown with 1:11 remaining in the half to give the Pats the 15-0 advantage at the break.

Pilgrim continued to surge in the second half, beginning when Borges connected with Conner Fallon for a score. Pilgrim would recover a Smithfield fumble at midfield the next drive, which would then lead to Ayres’ second score to give the Pats the 28-0 lead midway through the quarter.

“He made a huge impact. We’ve been telling him that he just needs that one more move to make that guy miss and he really brought it tonight. He’s a spark plug, he sticks his foot in the ground and goes,” said Pilgrim head coach Blake Simpson of Ayres’ night.

Cesar Pascual later rushed for an 8-yard touchdown to give Pilgrim the 35-0 lead heading into the fourth. TJ Xayapanya would rush for one last score in the fourth to make it 42-0 and close out the win.

Ayres had his best game of the season, also contributing on special teams and bringing two punts back deep into the Smithfield zone.

“Field position was huge, our defense was stout all night, even better was our offense didn’t punt once. Field position was big for us tonight and it worked in our advantage,” said Simpson.

Ayres was also excited to prove his worth, especially as a smaller running back.

“Me being small is what fires me. Being small, people think that you can’t do it. You’re not strong enough, not big enough, but I work hard every day at practice and in the weight room to prove them wrong. I put in the work to get it done,” said Ayres, who also felt that the Patriots wore Smithfield down in each quarter. “We work on our conditioning every day at practice, we push it more and more. I think that helps us as a team. Every quarter we wear them down and when the fourth quarter comes around we have a lot of energy and they don’t.”

The Patriots will now head into their bye week, and Simpson hopes to see his club carry the energy into the home stretch.

“It has taken us a little bit to click all year. We’re waiting for them to just come out the gate scoring and we’re one step away from doing that. It’s a process, it’s now our bye week so we’re hoping to swing this momentum over to our season finale,” said Simpson. “Playing those three tough opponents early have helped us in these past two weeks. When you pay tough competition, it makes you better.”