Although they had to rally from behind for the third time this year, the Riverheads JV football team knocked off Stuarts Draft tonight 24-13 to finish the abbreviated regular season with a 5-0 record. The fact that the Gladiators did receive close games from Fort Defiance, Buffalo Gap and now the Cougars should indicate that the future battles will be equally competitive as these teams mature.
Although the home standing Cougars did not come out victorious tonight, they certainly gave their fans a good showing. In fact they scored first in a most impressive fashion, which I will get to shortly, and they scored last, but a three-touchdown effort from Riverheads in the middle led to the Big Red victory. In addition to finding the end zone three times, the Gladiators converted all three two-point conversions, giving them an amazing 22 for 24 success record in that department this season.
RHS received the opening kickoff and immediately drove down into the red zone, using all running plays. But the Cougar defense stiffened inside the 5 and took over on downs. Moments later, facing third and seven from their own seven yard line, the Cougars went to the air and found a receiver out in the right flat who had gotten behind the defense. He hauled in the pass (sorry I have no names to give you) and was off to the races for a 93 yard touchdown, which I would certainly assume was SD's longest of the season.
Riverheads then calmly marched down the field on their second possession, still in the first quarter, and scored on fourth down to take the lead for good at 8-6. That would turn out to be the halftime score although the Gladiators had two more opportunities to pad their lead. First an errant center snap led to a shanked punt, and then later an interception gave the Big Red excellent field position, but they could not capitalize on either occasion.
SD received the second half kickoff and immediately reeled off a nice run of about 25 yards and seemed primed to re-gain the lead. But Riverheads stiffened and then used their ball control offense (RHS only attempted one pass tonight and it failed) to score once more in each quarter. My vantage point (sitting in my car along the fence talking window-to-window to a proud Cougar grandma) was not the best tonight, so I cannot give you specific details on who scored for the Big Red, but I assume their usually-dependable quartet of backs (Logan Hostetter, David Austin, Shay Archie and Brendan Fortune) were all in on the winning effort.
The Cougars then ended the scoring with a late TD, and happily the whole thing was over in a little over 90 minutes, allowing us all to get home to see one massacre and one slobberknocker on the tube. Should be an interesting final weekend in Indianapolis!
Congratulations again to the Junior Gladiators and the other JV programs in the district, as mentioned above. Now let's all bring out the blankets, the parkas, the mukluks, and whatever other kind of Arctic attire you may possess, and get ready for the big one Thursday night!
Although the home standing Cougars did not come out victorious tonight, they certainly gave their fans a good showing. In fact they scored first in a most impressive fashion, which I will get to shortly, and they scored last, but a three-touchdown effort from Riverheads in the middle led to the Big Red victory. In addition to finding the end zone three times, the Gladiators converted all three two-point conversions, giving them an amazing 22 for 24 success record in that department this season.
RHS received the opening kickoff and immediately drove down into the red zone, using all running plays. But the Cougar defense stiffened inside the 5 and took over on downs. Moments later, facing third and seven from their own seven yard line, the Cougars went to the air and found a receiver out in the right flat who had gotten behind the defense. He hauled in the pass (sorry I have no names to give you) and was off to the races for a 93 yard touchdown, which I would certainly assume was SD's longest of the season.
Riverheads then calmly marched down the field on their second possession, still in the first quarter, and scored on fourth down to take the lead for good at 8-6. That would turn out to be the halftime score although the Gladiators had two more opportunities to pad their lead. First an errant center snap led to a shanked punt, and then later an interception gave the Big Red excellent field position, but they could not capitalize on either occasion.
SD received the second half kickoff and immediately reeled off a nice run of about 25 yards and seemed primed to re-gain the lead. But Riverheads stiffened and then used their ball control offense (RHS only attempted one pass tonight and it failed) to score once more in each quarter. My vantage point (sitting in my car along the fence talking window-to-window to a proud Cougar grandma) was not the best tonight, so I cannot give you specific details on who scored for the Big Red, but I assume their usually-dependable quartet of backs (Logan Hostetter, David Austin, Shay Archie and Brendan Fortune) were all in on the winning effort.
The Cougars then ended the scoring with a late TD, and happily the whole thing was over in a little over 90 minutes, allowing us all to get home to see one massacre and one slobberknocker on the tube. Should be an interesting final weekend in Indianapolis!
Congratulations again to the Junior Gladiators and the other JV programs in the district, as mentioned above. Now let's all bring out the blankets, the parkas, the mukluks, and whatever other kind of Arctic attire you may possess, and get ready for the big one Thursday night!
