Riverside jumps on Valley early for nonconference victory

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, October 19, 2018 | 11:30 PM

Things looked good for Valley for a few seconds Friday night, but they quickly took a turn for the worse.

Senior wide receiver Malique Richardson fielded the opening kickoff, made a few moves, found some daylight through the Riverside coverage team … and fumbled away the ball at the Vikings 20-yard line.

The next play, Riverside quarterback Ben Hughes spotted a wide-open Nathan Sciarro for a 20-yard touchdown pass, and the Panthers were on the prowl.

Riverside sophomore running back Hunter Nulph ran for 205 yards and two touchdowns to help past Valley, 43-6, in a Class 2A nonconference game at Valley’s Memorial Stadium.

“These games late in the season really don’t mean anything, and we‘ve got so many kids banged up and we’re concentrating on next week,” Valley coach Muzzy Colosimo said.

Valley (3-6) will travel to East Allegheny next week for its final regular-season game. The winner secures the fourth and final postseason spot in the Allegheny Conference.

“We thought they had some athletes and could score some points,” Riverside coach Ron Sciarro said. “Coming in, you never what’s going to happen.”

Riverside will finish with Midwestern Conference rival New Brighton. The winner secures third place in the conference, and the loser falls to fourth.

Other than the quick score by the Panthers off a turnover, the Vikings played well on defense during the first half. It was the Valley offense that made big plays and then moved backwards.

Senior quarterback Tyler Green connected with senior running back Deonte Ross for an 18-yard pass play to get the Vikings offense rolling, but holding and illegal-shift penalties sank the Vikings attack and forced Valley to punt.

Riverside got on the board again in the second quarter, when Hughes found wide receiver Josh Bishop for a 9-yard touchdown pass to bring the score to 14-0 after the Wyatt Ray extra point. Hughes finished 6 of 7 for 125 yards and three touchdowns.

“Our kids were ready to play,” Sciarro said. “I think we let them hold the ball a little too much in the first half.”

The Panthers offense came out in the second half and dominated. Nulph scored on a 3-yard run on Riverside’s first possession of the half to make the score 22-0 after Hughes’ 2-point conversion run.

Nic Ottaviani scored on a 1-yard plunge to put the Panthers up 29-0 midway through the third quarter.

Valley moved Ross to quarterback in the second half and played mainly out of the wildcat formation. It worked early: After a steady dose of Ross running the ball, he passed to senior tight end Noah Hutcherson for a 16-yard touchdown. The Panthers lead was 29-6 after a failed 2-point conversion run.

“The one thing that you’re always going to be sure of is that (Ross) is always going to play hard,” Colosimo said.

Things got tense when Valley wide receiver Cutty Chambers was knocked out of the game by a hard hit near the Valley sidelines by Ottaviani. Ottaviani was flagged, and the ball moved forward 15 yards but the Vikings’ couldn’t make anything out of the drive and had to punt. Chambers did not return.

The Panthers came back down the field and scored when Hughes found Ottaviani for a 14-yard touchdown to go ahead 36-6.

“We didn’t change a thing (offensively) at halftime,” Sciarro said.

Nulph tacked on an 8-yard touchdown run with about 7 minutes left in the game.

Ross lead the Valley rushing attack with 116 yards on 17 carries.

“You saw some gutsy performances by some kids coming back after they were hurt,” Colosimo said. “I’m kind of proud of them, but you still saw too many mistakes and in a real good game that’s going to hurt you.”

William Whalen is a freelance writer.

Tags: Riverside, Valley