Raiders romp past Tritons 28-7
Riverdale quarterback Daniel Ulmer passed for three touchdowns and Keenan Walker ran for two more as the Raiders defeated Mariner 28-7 Friday night in a spring classic football game at Tony McKenna field.
Ulmer connected twice with Jacob Tracey. Both times the six-foot-4 Tracey jumped higher for the ball than the Tritons’ defensive back.
Raiders coach Tom Roszell said, “We’re relying on them to get us out of jams.”
Ulmer’s third TD was caught in the end zone just above the ground by Deishan Layne on a ball that was tipped.
The coaches decided to have the first quarter played by the JV players. During that first period the Raiders racked up 152 rushing yards, including two touchdowns, to build a 13-0 lead. Freshmen Keenan Walker and Joey Terebieniec each scored. Walker’s second score came in the third quarter playing for the varsity.
The score was reset to 0-0 after the first quarter, and the Tritons received a new start on offense.
Early in the second, the Tritons looked tough. Riverdale went for it on fourth down in their first possession, and the Tritons stopped them. On the next play, the Tritons’ Johnathan Charles broke through the Raiders line and sprinted to the 15-yard line. The drive stalled when Cairo Jeunegens’ fourth-down pass into the end zone fell incomplete.
Meanwhile, Riverdale moved quickly to score its first varsity touchdown. It took only five plays, with most of it coming on a 51-yard jaunt by Zach Sanders. The last 18 were covered by the first Ulman-Tracey hookup.
Mariner started slowly in the second half. With a loss of 10 and a penalty, the Tritons faced third-and-19 at their own 16. At this point Jeunegens launched a pass that Chance Reiter ran under, and took 84 yards on the fly to the end zone. The Tritons showed moments of brilliance, especially in passing. This was one of those moments.
The Tritons were plagued by bad snaps. Several times the shotgun snap was fumbled, causing several drives to stall.
“We’ve got a lot of potential,” Mariner head coach Travis Smith said. “The problem comes when the center doesn’t get the ball to the quarterback. We installed the pistol this spring. We’re coming together.”
Early in the fourth, Mariner mounted another good drive , and had first-and-goal at the 5 after Jeunegens scrambled and converted a fourth-and-long from the 25. Three plays later, when he hit Reiter again, the ball was stripped away by Tracey and returned to the 45.
Tracey was at it again on defense when he intercepted a Mariner pass late in the game.
“The outcome wasn’t what we wanted tonight, but we’ve got some kids that can move the ball,” Smith said. “Our biggest goal is to get stronger on the offensive line. Tonight, we had five guys going both ways (offensively and defensively).”