SETH — Even though it was a scrimmage, Riverside football showed on Friday night that they didn't have any quit in them.
Down 21-7 at Sherman with all the momentum favoring the Tide, the Warriors scored 35 unanswered points on the way to a 42-21 edge after three quarters.
"It was really good because last year, we would have fell apart, and that's where we've revamped this year," Riverside coach Heath Huffman said. "We started day one about January, got in the weight room, started preaching it, and the kids started buying into it."Â
The two teams played three 12-minute quarters of varsity competition before an eight-minute junior varsity fourth quarter took place.
Riverside quarterback Dasani McCallister kept the ball for a 4-yard score with 6:06 left until halftime and the Warriors' Jaion Tucker intercepted Tide signal caller Eli Pauley and took it 93 yards back to the other end zone to tie the contest at 21.
Then, in the third period, a 2-yard rushing touchdown by Cortez Lacy, a Warrior fumble recovery, a 10-yard trip to paydirt by Tavion Woods, and a 49-yard scoring run by Woods helped Riverside to that 42-21 lead.Â
Those lowlights aside, Sherman's Trey Lester looked the part of a star on Friday.
The standout senior helped the hosts draw first blood at 7-0 after he picked off a pass from McCallister and returned it some 55 yards for a touchdown with 9:32 left in the first quarter.
Up 14-7, Pauley was pressured, rolled to his right, and barely released a deep pass that the 2024 Class A All-State first team offense honoree caught and took to the house for a 75-yard score with 29.4 seconds remaining and a 21-7 Tide advantage.
Lester seems to have picked up right where he left off from last season.
"He's just amazing," Sherman coach Kevin Buzzard said. "He is every coach's dream. You just get the ball in his hands, and he can make stuff happen."
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Pauley kept the ball for a 3-yard score with 5:23 left in the first period to make it 14-0 Sherman before Riverside answered and pulled to within 14-7 via a 5-yard rushing touchdown by Lacy. Sherman's Dawson Green and Riverside's Eli Taft converted all of their extra points on the evening.
Nolan Barker had a fumble recovery for the Tide.
In the fourth quarter, Riverside scored a junior varsity touchdown as Shylil Kinney caught a pass from Jaidon Clark.
The Warriors will open the regular season at home against Greenbrier East on Aug. 29.Â
Huffman said his team will approach that contest the same way they approached Friday's scrimmage.
"We have to come out and show everybody that we've changed," Huffman said. "We have to show everybody that we're going to play football. We're not going to fail and kill ourselves anymore. We're athletes. We're people, and one game at a time."
Buzzard said he and his coaching staff didn't want to play Lester or Green in the second half, and they pulled a few of their starters.Â
The Tide coaches were happy with what they saw in the first two stanzas, though.
"We saw what we wanted to see in the first half, and we're good with that," Buzzard said.Â
Sherman will also open the 2025 regular slate at home against Sissonville on Aug. 29.
"We approached this week just as we were playing them week one, and we have to grind," Buzzard said. "We're still looking for a certain few kids to take up the slack."
