Beavers fall into W.Va.’s perennial powerhouse – News-Herald

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Riverside coach Dave Bors has a long-term plan to elevate the Beavers program to the top echelon of high school football in Ohio.

Part of Bors’ strategy is to program strong competition whenever possible. To that end, Riverside has hosted Martinsburg, the equivalent of the Ohio Division II and West Virginia State Champions eight of the past 10 seasons.

Riverside took a 33-32 lead with 6:13 to go when junior linebacker Jason Ryan pulled the ball out from a Martinsburg runner and covered 34 yards for a touchdown.

The prolific Martinsburg offense, who racked up 484 yards that day, responded with two touchdowns and the Bulldogs won, 45-33.

Although the Beavers failed, Bors was pleased with how his team competed and believes the experience will be useful for the remainder of the season and into the future.

“It’s a tough team,” Bors said. “In the breakdown earlier, I told our children that I was proud of them. There is a reason we called Martinsburg when we had this opening. They are one of the best D-II equivalents on this side of the Mississippi. It was a playoff vibe in terms of intensity.

Riverside (5-3) got exactly the kind of start he wanted: force a three and get out, then drive 52 yards to score on a three-yard dive from Dom Tromba for a 7-0 lead.

Martinsburg’s offense, punctuated by an effective and efficient passing attack, reached the end zone on his next three possessions to take a 19-7 lead.

The Bulldogs (7-0) recovered an in-play kick after his first touchdown and attempted several more in-play kicks in the game. In a fourth down-and-9 game to his own 21 in the second quarter, Martinsburg QB Ezra Bagent (301 yards passing) found his favorite target, WR Hudson Clement (14 catches, 255 yards) for a gain of 14 yards.

“We have a bunch of really good players,” Martinsburg coach Britt Sherman said. “Our quarterbacks and of course Hudson Clement is our best receiver. But we also had other guys, Roman Pierson, Jacob Barrick and Stephon Barclay who made some big plays for us.

Riverside came back in the game when junior QB Cam Simpson (176 yards passing) connected with Trey Reutter for 44 yards to Martinsburg 4 in the second quarter, and sophomore Jason Mackey had it. picked up from there.

Trolling, 25-14, to start the second half, Riverside got a pair of spectacular catches – first by junior Jake Elly for 19 yards, then runner-up Brady McKnight for a 25-yard touchdown to reduce their deficit at 25-20 in the third quarter.

Each team scored again to make it 32-20 in the fourth quarter before the Strip and Ryan’s score put the Beavers in the lead.

“We talked about playing physically and playing hard, and that our defense hasn’t had a take-out yet,” Bors said. “Who was going to change momentum? Jason has done a lot for us this year, and he’s coming to play us a play, and that was pretty cool. I wish it was the seal of the game. “

Unfortunately for the Beavers, that wasn’t the case, as Bergent connected with Clement for 75 yards, and a 2-yard run from Murphy Clement with 1:32 to go sealed it.

Riverside, who finished with 247 yards, will travel to Kenston on October 15 before welcoming South on October 22.

“Even though we came out the losers, we got better today,” said Bors. “If we had been afraid of losing, we wouldn’t have called them. Obviously we wanted to win, but there are a lot of things that we are going to continue to improve as a program, based on playing a team like this.

PHOTOS: Riverside vs Martinsburg football, October 9, 2021



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