This can't be good news for the rest of the district but in tonight's opener on the Green Hornet gridiron, the junior version of the Big Red Machine gave every indication that the proud Gladiator football tradition will be alive and well for at least a few more years. Despite that lofty point total, Coach Ryan Armstrong's team did not do anything flashy or breakaway, but instead just punished the Hornets with a relentless ground game. In fact I don't recall Riverheads completing a single pass or having a run from scrimmage of more than 15-20 yards. It was just straight ahead football, dragging tacklers along more often than not, as the Gladiators spaced out 7 TDs and remarkably added a two-point conversion after every single one of them.
Apologies in advance if I leave out important contributors but according to the PA announcer, the Big Red's main weapons on offense were Brendon Fortune, David Austin, Shay Archie, and Logan Hostetter, with each one of those scoring at least one TD and/or conversion. On defense, Archie was all over the place as was a young fellow named Noah Ross, who also handled the kicking duties for Riverheads.
Wilson simply had no answer for anything RHS did on offense but at least the Hornets did have the two biggest plays of the night, although only one of them counted on the scoreboard. With Riverheads already leading 24-0, a Hornet receiver got behind the secondary and hauled in a 50 yard TD pass for the home team's only score of the night. Then after the Big Red moved ahead 32-6 later in a busy second quarter, Wilson ran a kickoff back for a TD but it was called back on a penalty.
Other than that, Wilson had a number of execution and timing problems as at least three shotgun snaps sailed out of control, and in most if not all of those cases, RHS was able to turn the miscue into points. The Hornets did receive two pass interference calls against RHS, but never mounted another serious scoring threat as the running clock speeded the game along.
Next up of course will be the varsity clash Friday night in Greenville where each team will hope to move to 2-0 on the season. The Riverheads JVs should be at home to Fort Defiance next week.
Apologies in advance if I leave out important contributors but according to the PA announcer, the Big Red's main weapons on offense were Brendon Fortune, David Austin, Shay Archie, and Logan Hostetter, with each one of those scoring at least one TD and/or conversion. On defense, Archie was all over the place as was a young fellow named Noah Ross, who also handled the kicking duties for Riverheads.
Wilson simply had no answer for anything RHS did on offense but at least the Hornets did have the two biggest plays of the night, although only one of them counted on the scoreboard. With Riverheads already leading 24-0, a Hornet receiver got behind the secondary and hauled in a 50 yard TD pass for the home team's only score of the night. Then after the Big Red moved ahead 32-6 later in a busy second quarter, Wilson ran a kickoff back for a TD but it was called back on a penalty.
Other than that, Wilson had a number of execution and timing problems as at least three shotgun snaps sailed out of control, and in most if not all of those cases, RHS was able to turn the miscue into points. The Hornets did receive two pass interference calls against RHS, but never mounted another serious scoring threat as the running clock speeded the game along.
Next up of course will be the varsity clash Friday night in Greenville where each team will hope to move to 2-0 on the season. The Riverheads JVs should be at home to Fort Defiance next week.
