Riverfield posts first win of regular season play

The Riverfield Academy Raiders upped their early season record to 1-1 with a big district win over the Porter’s Chapel Eagles this past Friday night.
Coming off an eight-point loss to the Bayou Academy Colts just a week earlier, the win helped to boost the morale of the team as well as give them an early 1-0 standing in district play.
The first half of the game was dominated by the Raider offense as the defense virtually shut down the Eagles offensively. The Raiders scored on their first two possessions of the game.
Three plays into their first possession, Cole Garrett ran the ball 45 yards to the Eagle end zone for the first Raider touchdown of the night. After the Raiders kickoff, the Eagles were held to just three yards and forced to punt. On the first play of the second Raider possession of the game, Zach Carnegie ran the ball 69 yards to the Eagle end zone for the second Raider touchdown of the game, giving the Raiders an early first quarter lead of 13-0.
The early minutes of the second quarter featured two more Raider touchdowns in a back to back fashion. With less than two minutes gone off the second quarter clock, quarterback Braxton Shelton connected with receiver Zack Rockett with a 30-yard touchdown pass.
The Raiders then kicked off to the Eagles. The Eagles bobbled and then fumbled the kickoff. Nicholas Heath picked up the fumble for the Raiders and ran it 25 yards for the fourth Riverfield touchdown of the game. The Raiders took a commanding 26-0 lead into the half.
After the half, about midway into the third quarter, the Raiders struck again on a five-yard touchdown run by Zach Carnegie to go ahead 32-0. With 37 seconds left in the third quarter, the Eagles scored for their first time and the quarter ended with Riverfield leading 32-7.
In the fourth quarter many of the younger Raiders got a chance to play as the Raider coaches pulled most of the first string players out of the game. The Eagles scored twice in the fourth quarter while the Raiders scored one more time on a two-yard run by Nicholas Heath. The final score was 39-21 in favor of the Raiders.
Riverfield totaled 334 yards of offense on the night. Of these, 272 were rushing yards while they gained 62 yards with a the pass.
Cole Garrett was the lead rusher with 96 yards. Garrett was followed by Zach Carnegie with 84 yards, Nicholas Heath with 66 yards, Garret Brakefield with 22 and Hudson Brakefield with four.
Quarterback Braxton Shelton was three for four with 62 yards passing. Kaleb Clarke was three for six on PAT kicking.
The Raider defense was powerful with Josh Prine, Chase Miller, Jackson Shelton, Kyle Bolton and Jacob Wright all keeping the Eagles pushed back for a big portion of the game. Wright also recovered an Eagle fumble.
the Raiders will face their big rival, the River Oaks Mustangs, tomorrow night. They are hoping to retaliate for last’s year’s loss to the Mustangs. The game will be played at River Oaks in Monroe. Early this week head coach Boyd Cole had these comments:
“I was very proud of the way the kids came back last week after the first game loss. They were determined to get our record even.
“Our first district game could not have gone any better. The defense dominated Porters’ Chapel and the offense was clicking.
“Our biggest rivalry is this week with River Oaks. We will be ready. We owe them from last year. Everyone come out to support the Raiders.”
Hey, Raider fans, it’s a short drive to Monroe. Plan on making the trip Friday night to watch the 2017 Riverfield Raiders beat River Oaks.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.