By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

RESERVE — Thursday night’s jamboree matchup against West St. John began as badly as one could imagine for Riverside, after a fumble on the first play from scrimmage led to a Rams score.

But Riverside regrouped to score 25 unanswered points, sealing a 25-7 jamboree win to kick start its season.

“The Rebels offense struggled at times but its defense was airtight, forcing five Ram turnovers and holding WSJ to 97 yards of offense.

“It’s what I expect from a team with 15 returning starters,” said Riverside coach Mickey Roussel on his team bouncing back from the early deficit. “We’ve been through this before … I expected to hit the ground running offensively, and we struggled. That concerns me. But to get where we want to go, we have to play good defense, and that was a positive tonight.”

As badly as the game began for Riverside, the beginning of the second half was that much worse for the Rams.

Riverside forced a fumble on the opening kickoff of the second half, then Riverside quarterback Darnell Rachal connected with Austin Vicknair for a 27-yard touchdown pass in the corner of the endzone to push a 15-7 halftime lead to 22-7.

West St. John fumbled away the next kickoff as well. This time, the Rebels stalled, but the leg of C.J. Edler boomed a 38-yard field goal to make it 25-7.

“That field goal was crucial. We got a little greedy there and stalled, but he made a big kick,” said Roussel.

Said Riverside linebacker Grady Gieger: “We were pumped. That was a huge momentum change. They’ve got a lot of guys that go both ways, so they were tired and we tried to strip the ball.”

The Rams first play of scrimmage in the second half went sour when a deep ball thrown by Rams quarterback Austin Howard was intercepted by Riverside defensive back Nate Williams.

Roussel said that Williams stepping up was a great sign for a team that returns an experienced front seven, but has been looking for some playmakers to step up in a revamped secondary.

“He’s practiced there for a week and he’s helped us,” said Roussel. “He looked like an All-Pro tonight.”

Said West St. John coach Robert Valdez: “You can’t give a team as good as Riverside five turnovers. You’ll never beat them that way.”

While the result of the game wasn’t to the Rams’ liking, the very beginning of its season couldn’t have gone much better. After forcing a Lloyd Johnson fumble, it took one play for Howard to connect with Jarius Moll on a beautiful 20-yard touchdown pass that mirrored Rachal and Vicknair’s hookup later that night. Steven Brignac’s extra point kick made it 7-0 with 14:02 left in the first half.

“I thought our young quarterback showed a lot of potential. He threw a nice touchdown pass early. I liked his poise,” said Valdez.

But each offense struggled to move the ball consistently. The opening fumble was the prelude to three more by the teams in the first half, including one lost by the Rams to set up the Rebels’ first score. Riverside recovered a fumbled snap at the Rams’ 15. Johnson, Thomas Crouch and Rachal each ran to set it up on the 1, and Rachal plunged in to tie the game.

Rachal showed off his playmaking ability on Riverside’s next drive. After converting a fourth down with a run, Rachal escaped some heavy Rams’ pressure and spun out of a tackle. He reversed field and converted a 32-yard gain to the WSJ 2. Crouch ran it in, then Johnson converted a 2-point run to make it 15-7 with 37 seconds left in the first half.

Roussel was pleased with the win but said the team could hardly afford to rest on its laurels. The defense gave us plenty of opportunities. Offensively, we were hit and miss,” he said. “It’s August 26.

“We have plenty of work to do. We know that. And I think every coach here would tell you the same after the jamboree.”

For Valdez, he said his team will work on conditioning and hopes to see an improved product in next week’s opener in Edgard against rival St. James.

“All mistakes are correctible,” he said. “Defensively, we played well. We always want to set the tone on defense, especially early.”