Jeannette jumps on Riverview for 2nd win

By: George Guido
Saturday, October 1, 2022 | 5:24 PM

While Riverview employed ball control through the remnants of Hurricane Ian on Saturday afternoon, Jeannette employed a quick-strike offense.

The Raiders ran 37 plays from scrimmage in the first half, compared to just 10 for the Jayhawks.

But Jeannette made the most of its opportunities and rolled to a 38-6 Eastern Conference victory at Riverside Park.

Senior Noah Sanders scored on runs of 53 and 71 yards the first two times he touched the ball to launch the Jayhawks toward their second victory of the season against four losses. Jeannette is 2-1 in conference play.

“It’s was great,” Jeannette coach Thomas Paulone Jr. said of the win. “Our offense was very efficient, and we had a great gameplan. They were trying to keep the ball away from our offense, and when we got it back, we knew we had to execute our offense.”

Riverview (2-4, 1-2) had the ball for 20 minutes, 52 seconds in the first half, compared to Jeannette’s 3:08. The Raiders took the opening kickoff and held the ball for eight plays before Jeannette’s Jeremiah Williamson picked up a fumble at midfield.

Sanders scored on the second play from scrimmage.

“Sanders is a phenomenal player,” Paulone said. “He been a great player and a model teammate, too. It was a great job by our defensive coordinator, Darius Brown, who made the adjustments. Hats off to Riverview. They executed, too. We just made the perfect adjustments.”

Riverview then had an 11-play drive to the Jeannette 29, but Nick Stuchell picked up a loose ball and Sanders raced 71 yards on a toss sweep on the following play.

The Raiders had the ball for 12 plays before losing possession on downs at the Jeannette 23. The Jayhawks needed six plays to go 78 yards, with quarterback Payton Moulter taking it in from 9 yards to give Jeannette a 20-0 advantage with 1:40 left in the half.

“We tried our best, but they made more plays than us at the end of the day,” Riverview coach Trevor George said.

After not throwing a pass the first half, the Jayhawks went to the air in the third period, with Moulter throwing touchdown passes to freshman Kymone Brown of 16 and 45 yards in the first four minutes of the second half.

The bright spot on a rainy day for the Raiders was finally getting on the scoreboard after a nine-play 64-yard drive with Johnny Bertucci going the final 6yards around left end.

“We’ve got a lot to fix,” George said. “That’s what our goal is: fixing our mistakes. We make the same mistakes over and over again. Truth is, (if) we fix our mistakes, we’re a good football team.”

Paulone didn’t alter his gameplan as it became evident during the week that rain would prevail.

“We planned for the weather all week,” the first-year coach said. “We got up the morning, and it turned out a little worse than we thought. We didn’t change much and we did what we did, and we did it well.”

Sanders finished with 201 yards on seven carries and Moulter 102 passing yards.

Carlo Buzzatto and Landon Johnson had 88 rushing yards each for the Raiders.

Tags: Jeannette, Riverview