PAINESVILLE TOWNSHIP —
The Riverside Beavers unveiled something new on Friday, and it helped them to do something they hadn’t in quite a while: beat Perry.
Dave Bors started junior Maxx Brubaker at quarterback, and uncharacteristically under the coach’s regime, the Beavers threw the ball 19 times in a 37-24 home victory.
John Watson, who runs a triple-option offense, had been the incumbent starting quarterback. But Brubaker, who is more of a passer, was able to complete 12 passes for 259 yards against the Pirates, as the Beavers racked up 438 yards of total offense.
The move didn’t surprise Perry coach Matt Rosati, who had seen the Beavers scrimmage. It wasn’t something that Bors and his staff had talked about much publicly, however.
“We wanted to make sure that we kept it behind closed doors,” Bors said. “It was just a matter of what they were giving us tonight. Maxx happened to be the better matchup, so we were able to move John around on the field, and it just worked well. We’re lucky that we’ve got two guys who can do the job.”
It was the first win for Riverside over the Pirates since 2005, thus breaking a six-game losing streak against that opponent. The non-conference contest was the opening game for both schools.
Riverside was nursing a 17-16 lead at halftime, thanks in large part to two long touchdown plays and three turnovers forced, two of which came inside the Riverside 10-yard line. In the third quarter, however, the Beavers put some distance between they and their foe with three unanswered touchdowns.
First, Marcus Jones (20 carries for 129 yards), who had ripped off a 75-yard touchdown run for Riverside’s first touchdown, capped a 65-yard drive with a seven-yard scoring run. Following a fumble, Brubaker hooked up with Chandler Smith (3 catches, 108 yards), a first-year senior player, for a 29-yard touchdown pass.
After the defense held, Nick Iapaolo tacked on a 63-yard punt return to stretch it to 37-16. The Pirates didn’t score their final TD until the waning seconds, when Kyle Kuhn took it in from 20 yards.
The first half was a dogfight. Perry’s Cale Burdyshaw (15-for-20, 159 yards, 1 TD) ran the ball in from 49 yards out to answer Joe Munaretto’s 30-yard field goal that opened the scoring. Jones countered with his long run for a 10-7 lead.
In the second quarter, Zak Hurd blocked a punt for Perry and recovered it at the Riverside one-yard line. But the Pirates were flagged for illegal procedure on the next play, and then turned it over on a fumbled exchange.
The Pirates did regain the advantage when Burdyshaw found Hurd for a 30-yard score with 7:25 to go in the second quarter. The Beavers then grabbed the lead for good when Matt Milostan took a pass in the right flat and broke away for a 76-yard scoring play.
On the next possession, Burdyshaw hit Anthony Keipert on a long pass down the left side, but he fumbled it away at the five yard line. The Pirates did get a safety on the next series when they sacked Brubaker, who fumbled it into his own end zone.
“We preach until they get the ball in the end zone, it’s anybody’s ball,” Bors said. “It could be on the one-millimeter line; we’re not giving up. You fight until it’s over.”
“I think we had our chance in the first half,” Rosati said. “We had three turnovers, and we couldn’t put scores on the board and put them on their heels. We really feel that we beat ourselves in that second quarter, but give Riverside a lot of credit-they’re a very good team and they wore us down.
“They’re a Division I football team and we’re a Division IV football team. They wore us down and they beat us-bottom line.”
“Our mindset in the offseason was just ‘Be conditioned and ready to go,’” Bors said. “Obviously it was a little hot out tonight. They were cramping a little more than we were. But they’re a great football team and they’re well-coached.”
Perry did collect 302 yards of offense, but only 79 after the intermission.
Riverside recovered another fumble in the second half. Along with an interception by Vince Tromba, it forced four turnovers on the night. The Perry defense came up with two, including a late interception by Ryan Bellissimo.
Goldman is a freelance writer from South Euclid.
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