OSCEOLA – Riverside avenged last year’s season-opening loss, while Class D1 No. 9 Osceola may have lost more than a game as the Chargers stormed back to defeat the Bulldogs, 64-38, Friday afternoon at Osecola in both team’s season opener.
OHS quarterback Isaiah Zelasney, last year’s class D gold medalist in the 100-meter, 200-meter and 400-meter dashes, suffered a serious leg injury early in the fourth quarter. To that point, he’d been the star of the game, rushing for 312 yards on 23 carries and four touchdowns. But after running for a 65-yard touchdown and a 55-yard touchdown on back-to-back runs, the very next carry, Zelasney snaked through the Riverside defense, gained five yards, then was tackled awkwardly. He was helped from the field, not putting any weight on his left leg as he left the field.
Zelasney’s injury dampened what had been an entertaining game. The Bulldogs scored on their first three drives, with two touchdown runs by Zelasney and one by Xavier Blackburn building a 22-8 OHS lead with 10:35 to go in the second quarter.
But on the next drive, Riverside quarterback Trent Carraher lofted a 50-yard touchdown pass to Lane Swercek to cut the Bulldogs’ lead to 22-16 with 8:58 remaining until halftime. On Osceola’s next drive, Zelasney threw a swing pass toward Blackburn, which hopped in front of Blackburn and bounced away. Blackburn thought it was a forward pass, but it was ruled to be a lateral and a fumble, which the Chargers’ Carson Bloom recovered at the RHS 31. Three plays later, Tony Berger burst for a 34-yard touchdown run to tie the game with 4:25 to go in the second quarter.
From there, Riverside’s offense took over. The Chargers had the ball six times in the second half and scored a touchdown on all six drives. A six-yard touchdown run by Berger gave RHS the lead for good early in the third quarter. A Carraher to Swercek 25-yard touchdown pass gave the Chargers a two-score cushion. After Carraher ran for a 24-yard touchdown on the first snap of the fourth quarter to push the lead to 50-38 with 11:54 to go, Berger churned for a 65-yard touchdown that all but locked up the game with 11 minutes remaining.
Berger paced a balanced offensive attack, rushing for 191 yards on 19 carries with three touchdowns. Carraher was 9-for-11 through the air for 186 yards and four touchdowns while also running for two TDs. Swerzcek had three catches for 101 yards and two touchdowns, while Bloom made five grabs for 83 yards and two scores.
