By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

Riverside got back on track on Friday night after a brief two game skid and looks to do so again at Lusher this Friday. Meanwhile, District 9-2A rival St. Charles looks to do the same in a home matchup against Thomas Jefferson.

The Comets absorbed their first loss of the season Friday against Curtis, 34-20.

St. Charles coach Frank Monica said that his team played hard and did not play badly. But he also said that there was no question that the better team came out ahead on the scoreboard.

“We didn’t play poorly. Curtis played extremely well,” said Monica. “They were just the better team … now it’s time to get back on track.”

John Wood scored twice on touchdown passes from Donnie Savoie and Marcus Hall made things interesting to begin the second half, returning a kickoff 92 yards for a score and drawing SCC within one, 14-13.

But Curtis went on a number of long, sustained drives, controlling the football via its veer offense. Torrey Pierce scored twice in his comeback from injury, and Brandon Bourgeois added a touchdown pass to Dillon Gordon.

St. Charles went to the Wildcat for the first time in the third quarter, but Curtis had an answer. The Comets got one first down in the quarter — Marcus Hall’s draw play gained seven yards and converted a third-and-six — but the Wildcat only generated 17 yards of offense on eight plays in the third.

“We were soft up front,” said Monica. “We didn’t block anyone … I kept hoping that maybe we’d punch the ball out, force a mistake. But it didn’t happen, and they sustained drives.”

The Comets will be heavy favorites at home against a Thomas Jefferson (1-7, 0-4) team that has lost seven straight, including a 51-0 loss to Newman on Friday.

Monica said that now is the time for his personnel to “grow up” after playing the best Class 2A has to offer.

“These kids have played a lot of snaps now against the best,” said Monica.” We should not be surprised at anything we see down the road. The competition in this district is very good and we’ve seen these teams go a long way … For the next two weeks, we need to get back to basics. We installed a lot of offense and defense early and quickly in order to compete against this schedule. We need to tighten up our base things now.”

Riverside, meanwhile, had to pick itself off of the mat after losses to Curtis and St. Charles and did so in a big way on Friday, besting Lakeshore in Reserve, 57-21.

Riverside coach Mickey Roussel was extremely pleased with some of the strides his Rebels made in areas that had been troublesome during the two game skid, in particular improvements in his offense’s ability to limit turnovers and in special teams play. Riverside turned the ball over only once on Friday and it consistently came out ahead in the return game.

“I was very happy with the strides we made in that department,” said Roussel of special teams. “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.”

The Rebels rolled up 467 yards of total offense and held Lakeshore to 184. Darnell Rachal led the way for RA, accounting 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.

Like Lakeshore, Lusher is a program in its virtual infancy. The Lions have made strides in the past year, however, and on Friday night scored perhaps its most impressive victory to date when it defeated district foe Fisher, 36-28, to move to 4-4.

“They’ve got a very good running back and they beat an established program in Fisher,” said Roussel.

“We have a rivalry game the week after (Newman), but we can’t worry about that right now. The biggest thing is to take care of the things that we need to take care of to get to where we want to be.”