RESERVE — The Riverside Academy Rebels (7-1) are entering the last game of the District 12- 2A regular season Thursday against the Sophie B. Wright Warriors (1-7).

The Rebels have only lost one game this season. It was their first game. The lost by one point to 5A John Ehret.

The Warriors have only won one game this season. It was their first game. It was against 1A Crescent City.

“I think we are playing well,” Riverside Academy head football coach Bill Stubbs said. “It’s that time of the year and we’re playing well. We are trying to prepare for the state playoffs.”

Stubbs said even though the Rebels have a better record this season than Sophie Wright, they wouldn’t be taking anyone lightly.

Riverside defeated Country Day (7-2) last week 43-24, but it wasn’t the shutout to which the Rebels had become accustomed.

“We made a mistake last week of underestimating our opponent,” Stubbs said. “We are making sure that doesn’t happen this week. We try to not to look at schedules or look at those types of things. You have to try to focus on yourself. We are at a point right now where we have to find every way we can to get better. It has to happen during the game, and we’re hoping to have a good performance this week.”

Stubbs said just because it’s the last game of the season, he doesn’t feel the stakes are higher this week than any other week.

“You play to enjoy yourself and you play to get better,” he said. “That’s really the only thing we concentrate on. We don’t worry about our opponent. We just worry about ourselves.”

Stubbs said the only pressure his players might be feeling is the pressure they put on themselves.

“There is pressure that we put on ourselves for how we perform,” Stubbs said. “There might be a little more versus any other time of the year, but we put it on ourselves.”

Stubbs said the Rebels aren’t intimidated by other teams; they are just out there to play and have fun.

“Sophie Wright has struggled this year,” Stubbs said. “But just like anybody else, when it comes to playing us, they want a shot at Riverside. Everybody wants a shot at Riverside right now. There isn’t anybody on any team that we are thinking, ‘Oh, we’ve got to stop this guy.’ We’re just going to play football. We are going to do the things that we do well and let everything else take care of itself.”

By Courtney Griggs