By ERIC BENEVIDES

Sports writer

PAWTUCKET --- Tolman High was too much for Cumberland High to handle.
The Tigers followed up one of their worst showings of the season with one of their finest on Tuesday night and used it to victimize the Clippers in their Division II semifinal-round contest at Max Read Field.
Offensively, the Tigers dominated in the trenches and produced 370 yards of offense (310 on the ground), and defensively, they were equally impressive, forcing five turnovers en route to a 29-0 triumph that catapults them into next week’s Super Bowl for the first time in four years.     
The Tigers will face unbeaten South Kingstown High next Monday at 6 p.m. at Cranston Stadium. The Rebels needed two late touchdowns to put away Toll Gate High by a 34-22 score.

The Tigers will be trying for its first championship since they captured the Class A title in 1971. They had topped the Clippers in the ’04 Super Bowl, but were later forced to forfeit that crown to the Clippers due to an ineligible player.
While Tolman coach Dave Caito was pleased with the win, he didn’t know which one of his teams were going to show up for Tuesday’s battle, the one that played poorly in a 39-6 setback to Shea High on Thanksgiving Eve at McCoy Stadium, or the one that had the ability to play as brilliantly as it did last night.
Luckily for him, the latter team showed up and gave a superb performance on both sides of the ball.
“Last week, I was embarrassed, especially because some of our (’04) Super Bowl players were there,” said Caito. “Jeff Costa, Cory Parker, Ryan Worthington, and a few of those guys came by the locker room, and I said (to my players), ‘You guys embarrassed me in some of the best players that we’ve had.’
“The first two days coming back, they were still a little down and we didn’t have great practices, but the last two days were phenomenal. And right before the game, we played the Super Bowl (video tape) for these guys and you could just see it in their eyes. They wanted it. They want to put a banner up in our gym, and now we have a shot to do that.”
“You can’t take anything away from Tolman,” said Cumberland coach Rick Reetz. “They just played excellent. They have a good team and we knew they had great talent and good speed that we weren’t able to match up with. They’ll do well next week. They’re a well-coached team and they certainly outplayed us tonight.”
The key to the victory may have been the Tigers’ phenomenal play of their offensive line, which helped create large holes for running backs Jason Lafond and Ousmane Samb and quarterback Jordan Johnson to run through.
“I can’t say enough about our offensive line,” added Caito. “We dominated up front, and that was great. “We have some tough, fast runners on our team, but without our offensive line, we wouldn’t have done what we did tonight.”
Lafond (10 carries for 102 yards) and Samb (14-100) each reached the 100-yard mark on their final handoffs of the night, and Johnson not only called his own number 13 times for 71 yards, but he also completed four of his seven passes for another 60 yards and a pair of touchdowns to tight end Allens Etienne.
“We like to get outside on people,” said Caito. “If they try to shut down the outside, we’ll try to run the ball off tackle or up the middle. Whatever the defense is giving us, we try to exploit, and I think we did a pretty good job of that tonight.”
Speaking of Etienne, no player had a better all-around game than the senior standout. Not only did he reel in TD passes of 13 and 30 yards to help give the Tigers a 22-0 cushion at the break, but he also shined from his defensive end position and contributed two of the Tigers’ three sacks and an interception in the end zone on the final play of the first half to preserve his team’s shutout bid. 
“Allens is one of the best athletes we have,” added Caito. “He’s such a humble, quiet kid, you wouldn’t even know he’s in the room. But once he gets on the football field, he has a different personality.”
The Clippers, who captured two of their final three Division II-B contests to get into the playoffs and downed West Warwick High in the quarterfinals, received 148 passing yards on 8-of-20 passing from quarterback Dan Canavan, but he was forced to leave the contest with a broken hand after hitting it on a helmet while throwing a pass in the third quarter.
Keith Gaumond, who filled in for Canavan behind center, ran for a team-high 74 yards on five carries, but he picked up 72 of them in the contest’s final minutes against the Tigers’ second-stringers.
The Tigers scored the only points they needed with 4:43 to play in the opening quarter on Johnson’s 13-yard scoring strike to Etienne, who capped a long 10-play, 71-yard drive by making a difficult catch near the right pilon and with three Clipper defenders hitting him as he caught the ball. Johnson later ran in the two-point conversion.
After the Clippers went three-and-out on their next possession, the Tigers quickly went back to work and needed up five plays to return to the end zone. A 23-yard scamper by Lafond helped set up a 10-yard keeper up the middle by Johnson and give the hosts a 14-0 command.
“They came out quick,” Reetz added of Tolman. “Our kids were a little out of sync at the beginning. Wee just never got into our game, but (Tolman) kept us out of our game.”
Etienne’s second touchdown, with 6:30 to play in the second quarter, was the play of the night and helped take some of the drama out of the contest.
Facing a second-and-23 from the Clippers’ 30, the Tigers looked like they were going to lose more yardage when Johnson was chased out of the pocket by two defensive linemen. But Johnson escaped their grasps, rolled toward the Clippers’ sideline, and heaved a high pass toward Etienne on the goal line.
Etienne, who is also best known for his heroics on the basketball court, jumped up in the air, outleaped a defensive back for the ball, and fell backwards into the end zone for the score.
“That was nice,” said Caito. “That was just the icing on the ice right there. We just said to Jordan, ‘Allens is a big boy. Throw it up to him and he’ll catch it,’ and he just outjumped the kid.” 
Lafond, who had 99 rushing yards on just nine carries in the first half, scored the Tigers’ final touchdown on a three-yard scamper with 8:18 on the clock in the third quarter. But he twisted his left ankle on the play and spent the rest of the night on the sidelines.
“He’s going to be fine,” added Caito. “We’re just going to ice him up. He’s such a tough kid that after we taped him up, he wanted to come back into the game, but at that point, it was just futile to put him back in.”
The Clippers had a few chances to break on the board, none bigger than their drive at the end of the first half. With less than a minute to play, Canavan quickly connected on three passes in a row to bring the ball from the Clippers’ 30 to the Tigers’ 25, but with time for one last play, he tried to hit Evan Patrick with a pass in the end zone, but Etienne stepped in front of him and outjumped him to intercept the pass.  
Canavan again tried to lead the Clipper to paydirt midway through the third quarter on a drive that saw him again connect on his first three passes to bring the ball from his team’s 34 to the Tigers’ five.
But on the first completion, a 35-yard pass to Patrick, Canavan broke his hand. He tried to shake off the injury, but heaved two incomplete passes, and after an illegal procedure penalty moved his team back five yards, Canavan was picked off by Hady Coumbassa at the five.
Cumberland’s final threat to score came in the waning minutes when both teams cleared their benches. Led by Gaumond’s running, the Clippers drove from their 25 to the Tigers’ 10 on nine plays, but ended up turning the ball over on downs.  
“It was a very difficult night and not a great way to end a season, but it still doesn’t take anything away from our accomplishments this year,” said Reetz. “We started the season by losing to the two bottom teams in our division, but these guys never quit. They stuck it together and worked hard to get this far.”