By RYAN ARENA

RESERVE — After a brutal two-week stretch of district games against John Curtis and St. Charles, both resulting in losses, Riverside got back to its winning ways on Friday, defeating Lakeshore 57-21 in a non-district game.

The Rebels rolled up 467 yards of total offense and held Lakeshore, a first year varsity program, to 184.

“Lakeshore’s got a few good athletes, but we knew coming in that they were young,” said Riverside coach Mickey Roussel. “We wanted to get back on track and take care of business. Over 450 yards of offense, our defense played well, and we really wanted to see improvement on special teams. I was very happy with the strides we made in that department. We covered kicks inside the 30 pretty much every time, and we returned them out to the 35-40. Those little things that we need to do if we want to get to the playoffs and make a run.”

Taking the lead was again Darnell Rachal, the Rebels’ quarterback who has been one of the state’s top offensive performers all season long. Rachal accounted for five touchdowns, including four rushing, and 344 total yards of offense.

Nate Williams, Dylan Martin and Devin Burke each scored rushing touchdowns, and Williams added a receiving score.

“Obviously Darnell’s such a key part of what we do, but we have a number of guys that contribute,” said Roussel. “We know we’re still a good team, but we’ve needed to get back to what we were doing before. We need to control the ball and eliminate turnovers.”

After Rachal put the Rebels ahead 7-0, Lakeshore tied the game on Mikel Mazik’s 23 yard touchdown reception from Michael Ball.

But from there, Riverside scored the next 44 points to make it a rout. RA led 28-7 at halftime.