Warriors roll past Lebanon

LEBANON — Mother Nature greeted Friday’s high school football game at Nokes-Lasater Field with a light drizzle.

The Riverdale Warriors met with a deluge.

Continuing to add to school records in consecutive wins and consecutive region/district wins and titles, the Warriors poured it on the Blue Devils 34-21.

Ranked No. 1 in the state and as high as No. 17 nationally, by the Tony Poll, the defending Class 5A state champion Warriors (9-0, 6-0 in Region 4-5A) won their 24th straight game, 69th straight region/district regular-season game and clinched a share of its 15th straight region/district championship.

“It’s a good accomplishment to be region champions again,” said Riverdale senior fullback/linebacker Kit Hartsfield. “We hope to carry it further and keep our state championship streak alive.”

Riverdale scored two touchdowns in the first five minutes and three in the first quarter to jump out to an early lead.

Its opening drive took eight plays and traveled 62 yards ending with a 2-yard touchdown run from senior tailback and Vanderbilt commitment Gaston Miller, who scored four times and has 25 touchdowns on the season.

After an interception by Hartsfield, Riverdale had the ball at the Lebanon 21, Miller scored three plays later on a 1-yard rush.

Before the quarter ended, senior wide receiver Antwaun Smith scored on a 43-yard reverse.

“Coach (Gary Rankin) said we needed to get a good jump and put some points on the board,” said Smith.

In the second quarter, though, Lebanon answered with an offensive storm of its own.

Set up by a fourth-down Warrior penalty that gave the ball back to the Blue Devils, tailback Carlos Gaines finished off the opening drive of the period with an 11-yard run to cut Riverdale’s lead to 21-7.

Just before halftime, set up by Ken Walton’s second interception of the game, Lebanon scored on a fourth-down 12-to-go play with a 22-yard touchdown pass from Daley Sallis to Nick Payne.

“I think they got back in it (after our penalty on the punt),” said Rankin. “I think they were at a point where they were about to give up and it gave them some momentum, then they made a big play at the end of the half.”

Momentum swung back to the Warriors in the second half.

Miller, who finished with 146 yards on 24 carries, scored on a 15-yard run on the Warriors first third-quarter possession. And, after a three-and-out Lebanon series, Miller finished off a methodical Warrior drive with a 3-yard TD run.

“When you can get up 21-0, that helps a lot,” said Miller. “We stayed calm and cool about it. We knew we were still doing the right things in the ballgame, but we made a couple of mistakes to let them score.”

Lebanon added another score late when Sallis hit Walton for a 65-yard scoring play with 4:24 remaining. Riverdale, though, recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.