Riverdale Victory Earned with 2nd Half Surge

<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Warriors had to take things to another gear in the 2nd half to pull off the win against Blackman and they did so in commanding fashion! The defense was stellar, the offense was steady and the Warriors look like a team you may not want to see come postseason time. </h2>   <p></p>   <p>Cross town rivals met up in North Murfreesboro on Friday night where we had a close ballgame headed into the mid-way break but the 2nd half belonged to the road team as Riverdale took over on their way to a 24-7 win over Blackman. </p>   <p>The atmosphere was strong for a good football game and it proved to be that way throughout the first half. The Warriors would strike first on their opening offensive drive as they leaned on the run game. They were able to get down to the red zone where senior back <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='219397' first='Dominic' last='Taylor'] </strong>took the quarterback pitch and raced to the end zone to put Riverdale on top 7-0. </p>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/CSmithScout/status/1847431566240206937 </div></figure>   <p>Blackman would too try to establish the run but it was tough sledding against a strong Riverdale front seven. The Blaze would move the ball at times in the 1st half but struggled to finish drives. A lot of that was due to the physicality played up front by the Warriors defense. </p>   <p>The Blaze defense didn't make things easy on the Riverdale offense either. They did a good job of slowing up the run early in this game while getting off the field on third downs. The Blackman front seven also got after the quarterback a few times, including an impressive power/swim move combo sack from stud defensive tackle <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='390644' first='Archie' last='Roseman']</strong>. </p>   <p>Creeping late into the 2nd quarter, Riverdale held a 7-0 lead until the Blaze finally got on the board with a nice pass from sophomore quarterback <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='207141' first='Marcus' last='Cameron'] </strong>to senior wideout <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1042282' first='John' last='Dragoo Jr']</strong>,. The pass was on point but the concentration, hands and footwork from Dragoo, Jr was superb, one of the best catches I've seen all season. </p>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/CSmithScout/status/1847439392970817892 </div></figure>   <p>Blackman tied things up at 7-7 headed into halftime and many around the stadium, including myself, thought we were in-store for a second half battle but that proved to not be the case. A surge was upcoming from the Warriors and according to Coach Kriesky, one of the best overall performances of the season from his 2024 Riverdale team. </p>   <p>After swapping offensive series with Blackman, the Warriors began to take over as they would drive the ball right down the field and place themselves in the red zone to put up their 2nd touchdown of the night. This score yet again came from Taylor as he caught a short yard pass in the corner of the end zone from Telin to push the Warriors lead out to 14-7. </p>   <p>Almost immediately after taking a seven point lead, Riverdale regained possession then pushed their advantage out further with a short yard quarterback run from <strong>Malachi Telin </strong>that put the Warriors ahead 21-7. The back to back touchdowns from Riverdale was a dagger into the efforts for Blackman as they struggled throughout the night to move the ball and with a 14 point deficit, it didn't look good for a comeback. </p>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/CSmithScout/status/1847453539959758996 </div></figure>   <p>After a 30 plus yard field goal that pushed the Riverdale lead out to 24-7, the Blaze would fumble on their next possession, which would seal the victory for the road team. Even though the Warriors didn't produce a ton of points or exciting plays, it was still a strong performance from Riverdale, especially from their defense that suffocated Blackman in the second half and kept them scoreless. </p>   <p>Defeating Blackman on Friday evening, Riverdale moved their record to 7-1 on the season with two regular season games remaining. One of those games happens in two weeks against Oakland, which should be for the region title. The Warriors are the reigning champs and Oakland is their rival, so that should be an outstanding, hotly contested inner-city game. </p>   <p>That happens at the end of the month but for Week Nine, the Warriors handled business like they should against Blackman and took their team confidence even higher as we enter the stretch run for the 2024 season.</p>   <figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img src="https://prepredzone.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/10/20241018_210157.jpg?w=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-1534258" style="width:444px;height:auto" /></figure>