By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

Riverside bounced back from a pair of district losses to knock off Douglass Saturday afternoon, 40-6 at Pan American Stadium in a District 9-2A game.

Darnell Rachal led the way for the Rebels, completing 7-of-9 passes for173 yards and four touchdowns. Rachal also did damage with his legs. Gaining 73 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries.

“We thought we played well against John Curtis, but we also thought we left a little bit out there against St. Charles last week,” said Riverside coach Mickey Roussel. “It was important to get a win.”

Even so, Roussel said that there is still work to be done. The win Saturday wasn’t without flaw.

“We were a little sluggish at times. The important thing to me wasn’t what (Douglass) was doing, or what the score ended up being,” said Roussel. “It’s what we do. Saturday, it was good enough for a 34-point win, and we’ll take it. But will it be good enough week one of the playoffs? That remains to be seen.”

Jake Roussel set up Riverside’s first touchdown by recovering a fumble at the Douglass 46-yard line. Rachal would cap the ensuing drive by finding Dylan Martin for a 19-yard touchdown pass to make it 7-0.

Another Douglass (2-6, 2-3) miscue set up Riverside’s second score – a Bobcats punt went for no yardage, and Rachal would score on a 1-yard run to make it 14-0.

The score climbed to 21-0 on a Roussel 7-yard scoring run. The Rebels (5-3, 3-2) made it a four-touchdown lead at halftime, 27-0, on Rachal’s 27-yard scoring toss to Nate Williams.

Each of those touchdowns were set up by Douglass turnovers, the first on a Brent Torres fumble recovery, the next on a Tate Scioneaux interception.

Williams and Andrew Vicknair would each catch touchdown passes in the second half.

Douglass scored its lone touchdown on a 60-yard Fernell Drummer run.

“Defensively, we played decent,” said Roussel.

“We intercepted a pass, got two fumbles. The one mistake we made was giving up that 60-yard run. We didn’t control the backside lanes. We know they look to cut back. So we can’t do that.”

Thomas Crouch finished the game with six rushes for 48 yards.

A strong day for Rachal was nothing new this season, but Roussel says his team must show more balance in the future – the running game did not click quite like the passing game on Saturday.

“The pass worked well, but we can’t just rely on that,” he said. “You can’t be one dimensional in the playoffs.”