By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
A season to remember for the Riverside Cyclones football team has come to an end, falling to the Jackson Heights Cobras in the Kansas Class 1A Sectionals 21-14.
The co-op made of athletes out of Wathena and Elwood put together one of the best season's in the programs history, becoming regional champions for the first time ever, after beating Centralia last week to reach the sectional round, and finishing as the sectional runners up.
Head Coach Bryce Paden says even through the emotions of the loss, there's a lot to be proud of this season
"It was such a good group of kids that played hard to the very end, played a really good team at their place and just came up short," Paden tells reporters after the game. "Got a lot of emotions, kids are great, but yeah it was a good season, great season, but not the way we wanted it to end."
After the Cyclones fell behind 6-0 in the first quarter, going three and out in their first offensive possession, the team responded by marching down the field and scoring a touchdown on a quarterback sneak from Beckam Griffin, taking the lead after converting the extra point attempt. Riverside held a 7-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.
It was a strong defensive effort from the Cyclones as well in the first half, forcing fumbles on back-to-back drives by Jackson Heights, recovering the ball both times, but not scoring until the second takeaway, again on a sneak from Griffin to extend the lead to 14-6, which is where the score stood at halftime, after the Riverside defense made a huge stop against the Cobras on 4th and 5 as they attempted to drive down and tie the game before the break.
Momentum changed hands in the second half however, Jackson Heights getting the ball to start and consuming much of the clock through the third quarter, soon scoring on a quarterback sneak of their own by Drake Mellies to go down by two. The Cobras tied up the game on a two point conversion pass from Mellies to Ian Allen.
Paden says they knew Jackson Heights was going to come out and give their best straight out of half, which the Cyclones saw on the opening drive.
"Then we were just trying to hold turf, we ended up going three plays and kicking it right back to them and we knew we were going to have to dig our heels in and stay with it," Paden explains. "And like I said they kind of just made some plays and put one in and we just couldn't recover, we had some chances and different things, but overall just a great season and our kids fought to the very end."
Jackson Heights indeed made some plays on a drive to take the lead, the biggest being a conversion on a long third down before heading to the fourth quarter all tied up. The Cobras scored to take the lead near the start of the fourth, a touchdown pass from Mellies to Brody Browning for the 21-14 lead.
Riverside drove down the field in an attempt to tie up the game, moving onto the other side of the 50 yard line on a long pass from Griffin to Keagan Hughes, and inching closer to the red zone on a barreling run from Elijah Moore. But soon, Moore would be stuffed in the backfield, forcing a 3rd and 11, then an incomplete pass that went just over the outstretched hand of Hughes in the endzone made it 4th and 11.
In the danger zone, with time ticking away, a false start moved the Cyclones back even farther and on the 4th and 16 play Griffin looked for Ty'Zell Harrington but found no one for the turnover on downs. The last chance for Riverside came late, a chance to get the ball back after the defense made a big stop on 3rd and 1, but the Cobras converted on fourth down, going on to kneel out the remaining clock for the win.
Despite the loss, it was still a strong defensive effort from the Cyclones, making some big plays. Paden says they've played well on the defensive side of the ball all season.
"That team right there has been averaging 50 some points a game it seems like since we played them week one, and held them to 21, so we knew our defense was going to be able to do it but they just found some holes," Paden says. "When you're a good team and you have a lot to defend, and a lot of good players to defend, the good coaches and good teams find little nicks they can exploit, and they did that in the second half."
Riverside finished the season 8-3 and as sectional runners up. Eight seniors graduate from the team heading into next year.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.