A Month On From An Assault, Hartford and Rhode Island Renew Their Rivalry

Off-field tensions have often overshadowed the on-field performances in El Clamico

Photo By Alex Roldan

Hartford Athletic and Rhode Island FC will square off in the third meeting of the season between the two clubs, with tensions having run high on and off the field in their previous encounters, both this year and last year.

The very first meeting between the two clubs in 2024, at Trinity Health Stadium, was marred by allegations that Hartford supporters had stolen a banner from traveling Rhode Island supporters. It appears that the banner was returned, although the incident created some bad blood between the two sets of fans.

In the return fixture at Beirne Stadium, one of the traveling Hartford fans set off fireworks in the stands with the Latics trailing 3-0. The fan was removed from the stadium, and later arrested. RIFC also banned that individual for an unspecified period of time.

The first meeting between the two clubs in the 2025 season brought another arrest as Hartford fans returned to the parking lot following a 0-0 draw, one was allegedly assaulted by an RIFC fan.

Chris Behlke, president of Hartford Supporters Group The Bonzanza, described the situation after the game.

“So pretty much security pushed us out the door, wanted us to leave the stadium and we had no security walking back,” he said. “I mean, so we had like maybe 50 people, 50-60 people walking and it sort of got spread out a little bit. And on the walk back, a lot of smack got talked between people, Rhode Island fans either in cars or walking back and and Hartford fans.”

A Hartford fan who traveled on the bus, and asked to be identified only as Shawn, described the build-up to the incident.

“But as we got to the bridge to cross the river…this guy came over, and clearly had a problem with our singing or something,” they said. “We were still chanting and whatnot and I guess he was upset that we were kind of aiming it at the Rhode Island supporters across the bridge.”

Another Hartford fan, who requested anonymity, added additional context, suggesting that some of the Hartford supporters present may have done more to antagonize the RIFC fans.

“The guy involved from our side [ed. The fan who was allegedly assaulted] was honestly acting like a dick all afternoon,” they said. “It was only a matter of time until we found an asshole on their side too.”

The same fan continued, describing how the incident began.

Behlke, who did see the incident take place, but was too far away to hear the interaction leading up to it, added his perspective.

“But then at some point I'm walking and all of a sudden I see some guy jump one of our guys and he's throwing punches and you see some cops running over,” he said. “And yeah, so apparently one of their fans, I mean, I don't know, I wasn't right there to hear any interaction between the two, but it seemed like didn't like something. And he jumped our guy. They hit him in the head a few times.”

Shawn was also close enough to see the incident take place.

“The actual incident, at least how I saw it, was that he crossed over from the street all the way up to us and from over the barrier like shoved one of our supporters, a moment later as our supporter was sort of standing back up, the RIFC guy started punching down on him, like full strength repeated punching,” they said. “This was able to happen despite two police officers and three security guards accompanying us.”

The lack of security was highlighted by every Hartford fan who spoke to The Blazing Musket, with complaints centering on the parking arrangements and the lack of any clear procedure for fans to leave the stadium in an organized manner.

The Blazing Musket understands that the fan in question was arrested by Pawtucket Police Department for disorderly conduct, and was subsequently banned from Centerville Bank Stadium by RIFC. A spokesman for Hartford Athletic confirmed that they had also banned that individual from Trinity Health Stadium.

The situation did leave some Hartford fans feeling nervous about returning the following week.

“Initially I was a little worried at the beginning of the week, but then I'm thinking this is probably the best week to go there because their security is going to be on top of everything,” he said. “They're not going to let anything go by.”

While RIFC did not respond to a request for comment on their security measures, it appears that they did in fact make adjustments. A spokesman for Hartford Athletic confirmed that there will also be additional security measures in place on Saturday at Trinity Health Stadium. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 RIFC fans are expected to travel to Hartford for the game.

Behlke was hopeful that things migt be more measured on Saturday.

“I'm hoping it's just just normal rivalry banter…we could talk smack back and forth, but it doesn't need to go over the line of being too personal or getting physical or anything like that,” he said. “I hope we treat them, the fans here, treat them the way that we were treated the second time. But yeah, I'm just making a fun experience for everyone so everyone can…enjoy the game.”