The season opening-football game for Riverside and Benjamin Logan was pushed back a day because of Friday’s inclement weather, but the wait was worth it for host Riverside as the Pirates pulled out a 14-13 win Saturday night.

Joseph Coulson’s 54-yard touchdown run with eight minutes remaining in the game capped a second-half rally for the Pirates.

It was the first time Riverside won a season opener in four years.

“It’s huge for our program,” said first-year head coach Tim Doty. “To play a Division III school and get a win helps us later with playoff points, but it does more than that. It gives our guys confidence and helps us feel that we can play with any team on Friday night. It’s huge for our confidence.

“I told our guys to enjoy the win now, but to get our minds on Triad next Friday. We can’t be complacent with what we have done, and to improve every day.”
The first half belonged to Ben Logan as the Raiders used a punishing ground game to tally two scores.

Landon McKirahan got the Raiders on the scoreboard early in the first quarter with a 29-yard dash to the end zone for a 7-0 lead.

The junior tailback gave Ben Logan another boost in the second quarter with a 10-yard TD run. The extra-point attempt failed, but the Raiders had a 13-0 lead going into halftime.

“We went in at halftime and I told the guys not to give up,” said Doty. “We worked way too hard and we knew if we came out and played 24 minutes of our type of football we could win the game.

“We fixed a few things on defense and offense. We would drive the ball and then shoot ourselves in the foot and kill drives. I knew if we kept our head in the game we would get our break and we finally got it.”

The Pirates’ break came with two seconds left in the third quarter when Jesse Kite caused the Raiders to fumble and Brian Hayman picked it up and raced 45 yards to the end zone for Riverside. David Meade’s extra-point kick pulled the Pirates within six points at 13-7.

Riverside’s Gunner Whitaker slips past Benjamin Logan’s Aron Myers, left, during their game Saturday at Riverside High School. Examiner photo | Aaron LaBatt

“As soon as we got that fumble recovery you could just tell it was a big momentum shifter,” said Doty. “We got our spirits back up and it really got us going. Our defense played unbelievable the rest of the half.”

Riverside carried that momentum into the fourth quarter. Four minutes into the final period, the Pirates dialed up a huge play as Coulson took a reverse from Gunner Whitaker and went 54 yards for the TD. Meade followed with the extra-point kick to put the Pirates ahead 14-13.

“We put in that reverse this week and it worked great,” said Doty. “We kept feeding the ball to Gunner and then ran that reverse. Our linemen did a great job of getting down field and helped pick up a few guys, too.”

The Pirate defense was able to hold off a Ben Logan rally the rest of the game to escape with the victory.

“The defense was huge,” said Doty. “I told them at halftime if you can go up there and shut them out the first drive or two, our offense will score. Our defense played huge all night long. The first half was rough, but we settled down and our defense kept us in the game.”

Whitaker anchored the Pirates’ ground attack with 110 yards on 17 carries and Coulson had 67 yards on six carries.

The RHS defense saw Johnathon Seeling finish with a team-high 11 tackles.

For the Raiders, McKirahan tallied 58 yards on eight carries and Jonathan Mobley had 55 yards on 13 carries. Dustin Bowers added 43 yards on the ground.

Defensively for Ben Logan, McKirahan recorded eight tackles, Aron Myers had six tackles and Artie Fields had three tackles for loss. Mobley added an interception.

Ben Logan hosts  Coldwater on Friday, while Riverside travels to Triad for a non-league matchup.