Pride tops Greenbrier West

GREENVILLE — Playing against their first out-of-state opponent in school history, the Riverheads Gladiators put on a smash-mouth football clinic piling up 470 yards of rushing in a 27-13 win over visiting Greenbrier West High School from Charmco, W.Va.

Seniors Cory Sandridge and Demetrius Younger made it a Homecoming to remember as the running back tandem combined for 358 yards on the ground and all four of the Gladiator’s scores.

“They are playing well and that’s what seniors are supposed to do,” coach Robert Casto said of his two backs after the game. “They both have four years of experience, they both run hard, they both block for each other, and they both are very unselfish, just like all of our kids. They don’t care who scores, just as long as we score.”

  Sandridge, Younger and the offensive line went to work right away, marching seventy-two yards in a nine- play drive that ended when Sandridge scored on a 13-yard touchdown run at the 7:10 mark in the first.

After the Red Pride defense forced a Cavalier punt, the Gladiator ground-attack went back to work and drove from their own thirty-three to the Greenbrier twelve before a botched handoff resulted in a lost fumble.

The Gladiators defense held for a second time, and after another punt, the bruising Younger broke off three impressive runs of 20, 29 and 19 yards, the last of which ended in pay-dirt, putting Riverheads up 14-0 with 4:36 to go in the first half.

Greenbrier responded in a hurry on their next possession as quarterback Chase Fitzwater found Cameron McQuain down the left-sideline for a 58-yard score, cutting the deficit to 14-7 at the half.

The Cavaliers picked up right where they left off starting the second half driving sixty-yards in ten plays the final one being a 1-yard touchdown run by Fitzwater. The extra-point attempt was blocked, leaving Riverheads up 14-13 with 6:33 to play in the third.

Any thoughts of a momentum-swing were quickly quieted when Younger got loose for a29-yard rumble on third-and-one from the Gladiator twenty-nine. Two plays later, Sandrigde went thirty yards to the end zone for his second touchdown giving Riverheads a 21-13 advantage after the extra-point by Dustin Skillman.

The Cavaliers then went on another long drive but the Gladiator defense was able to hold on a fourth-and-six from their own twenty-six. On the next play, Sandridge went 44-yards into Greenbrier territory down to the thirty. Three plays later, Younger put the game away for good with his second touchdown of the night from nine yards out, sending the Gladiators up 27-13 where the game would end.