ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / September 30, 2000

RESERVE – Traditionally, the Riverside Academy band strikes up with “Dixie” everytime the Rebels score a touchdown. Well, last night, the band sure gota lot of practice on that song as the 4-0 Rebels rolled over their district rivals, the 4-0 Redeemer-Seton Rams, 56-20.

Despite a second half comeback by the Rams, the Rebels dominated the game on offense and defense. The Rebels racked up a total of 456 yards inoffense, 377 of them in rushing with 79 yards passing. The Rams managed272 yards total offense with 114 yards on the ground and 158 yards in the air.

The leading Riverside rusher was running back Neil Richard with 113 yards and two touchdowns. Quarterback Damian Melancon was six for three for 49yards and one touchdown. Wide receiver Gary Entremont did all the catchingfor the Rebels with four receptions for 79 yards and two touchdowns.

The Rebel defense kept the Rams quarterback Donald Allen scrambling all evening. They also sacked him twice and forced an interception out of him. Despite that, Allen was the leading rusher and passer for Redeemer-Seton with 41 yards rushing and one touchdown, plus 158 yards in the air including two touchdowns.

The first half belonged to the Rams. On their first possession, they used acombination of passing and running to move the ball 45 yards down the field.

On the sixth play of the game, Melancon connected with Entremont for a 30- yard touchdown pass and the first score of the game. The point after wasgood and the score was 7-0.

The Rams had three completed passes on their possession and looked good, but then Rebel defensive back, Bradley Hodges intercepted an Allen pass on the Rebel 40-yard line and ran it back to the Ram’s 30. On the very nextplay, Melancon handed off to Britt Waguespack who made a short toss to Jeff Roccaforte who then passed a 30-yarder to Entremont for the second score of the game. After a good extra point kick the score was 14-0 withseven minutes left in the first quarter.

Redeemer-Seton got the ball back on their 22, but were only able to move it down to the 35 where they had to punt. Two plays later, running back JaredSt. Amant saw daylight, and made a break for the end zone. He fumbled theball on the 10-yard line, and lineman, Luke Trosclair picked up the ball to run it into the end zone for the third Rebel score of the evening. With 4 minutesleft in the first quarter, the Rebels widened their lead to 21-0.

Again, the Rams looked like they had finally woken up and were starting to take to the air, but they were shut down on their own 47 after Allen threw three incompletions in a row.

The Rams punted and the Rebels took over on their 30 and ran it down to the Rams’ 17-yard line when the first quarter ended 21-0. On the first play ofthe second quarter, Waguespack ran it in from 17 yards and the first rushing touchdown of the game. With the extra point, the Rebels were 28-0and it looked like nothing except an earthquake would stop them.

The Rebel defense again shut down the Rams, sacking Allen for the second time and forcing Redeemer to punt one more time.

The Rebels got three first downs in a row and then Brandon Delaneuville ran it 13 yards for another touchdown. With 9 minutes left in the first half, theRebels had an overwhelming lead of 35-0.

The Rams took over on their 34, but couldn’t do anything and ended up punting it away. Once more the Rebels ran the ball down to the Rams’ five-yard line and Neil Richard ran it in for his first of two touchdowns for the evening. With the extra point, the Rebels had a 42-0 lead.However, a face-mask penalty against the Rebels on the ensuing kick-off gave the Rams good field position on their own 42. They moved the ball downto the Rebel 28 and with less than two minutes left in the half, Allen connected with Kevin Marrero for the Rams’ first touchdown of the night.

The Rams failed to convert for two points and the half ended with the score 42-6.

A re-energized and re-vamped Rams team came out of the locker room for the second half and started to play some football. The took the kick-off ontheir 33 and after a spectacular 40-yard pass from Allen to Marrero, the Rams were knocking on the Rebels’ front door. From the Rebels’ 10-yard line,Allen again connected with Marrero for the Rams’ second touchdown. Theirtwo point conversion failed again and the score was 42-12.

The Rebels took over on their 45 and three plays later, Waguespack ran it in for a 38-yard touchdown. A good extra point made the score 49-12.On the Rams’ next possession, Allen passed three times to receiver, Kenneth Kenney for a total of 34 yards. Then Kendrick Bailey ran it the rest of theway to the Rebels one-yard line where Allen took it in himself for the third Rams’ score of the night. This time the two point conversion was good with apass from Allen to Robert Newman and the score was now 49-20 and there was less than three minutes left in the third quarter.

Riverside took over possession on the Rams’ 15 in the fourth quarter and two plays later, running back Zack Cambre ran two yards for the Rebels final score of the evening and the score was 56-20.

The Rams took over on the their 35 and ran the ball down to the Riverside 25, but four incomplete passes by Allen left the Rams scoreless and they had to give up the ball on the Rams’ 25 with 1:10 left to go in the game.

The 5-0 Rebels will play E.D. White in non-district Friday.

Return To Sports Stories

Copyright © #Thisyear# Wick Communications, Inc.Best viewed with 4.0 or higher