AVON – With the expectation of a significant downpour on the game’s regularly scheduled night, Thursday night football in the Delta ended with a Coffeeville High School Pirates 30- 0 win over the host Riverside High School Bulldogs (2-5).
Riverside’s defense made an impressive stand to keep the Pirates (3-4) out of the end zone on the first offensive drive of the second half. With the Coffeeville offense having four plays from inside the ten-yard line, the Riverside defense held steady and gave the ball back to its offense. Two plays later, Coffeville’s LaGarrett Neal scored on a three-yard run. The two-point conversion pushed Coffeeville out to a commanding 22-0 lead with 4:33 remaining in the third quarter.
“There was an inadvertent whistle in the first half that took a touchdown from us in the first quarter,” said Riverside head coach Jim Risen. “It just took the life right out of us and we never recovered. We also turned the ball over seven times and kept our defense on the field too long tonight.”
Pirates quarterback Jonah Taylor threw a five-yard touchdown pass in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter. The two-point conversion gave the visitors a 30-0 lead with 10:11 remaining in the ball game.
The Riverside offense showed some semblance of order and efficiency on its final series of the game with quarterback Eric Kingdom completing four consecutive passes pushing his offense to the Pirates 22-yard line. But a fumble ended the drive. “He’s maturing and coming along quite well,” Risen said of Kingdom. “He’s big, tall and intelligent-all of the tools that you need to be a great quarterback.”
The Pirates scored touchdowns in both the first and second quarters on the strength of its fakes and misdirection plays in their running game. One the Pirates second scoring drive of the game, the Bulldogs defense gave up a third down and 12 conversion deep in their own territory. Two plays later, senior tailback A J Matthews scampered up the middle for a ten-yard scoring run. The two-point conversion pushed the visitors to a comfortable 14-0 lead heading into the half. Riverside had a couple of opportunities inside the Pirate 15-yard line in the first half but turned the ball over on downs the first time and lost a fumble from a jolting tackle Mac Carr tackle on Riverside senior running back Dawson Graham.
Riverside will travel to face South Delta Friday at 7 p.m.
