Springdale dominates Eastern Conference rival Riverview

By: Michael Love
Friday, October 11, 2019 | 11:25 PM

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The Riverview football team turned on the lights Friday at Riverside Park for its annual night game.

Visiting Springdale then proceeded to turn the Raiders’ lights out.

The Dynamos collected 198 yards rushing and 252 overall and limited Riverview to 41 yards of offense in a 33-0 Eastern Conference victory.

“We just came in and executed our gameplan perfectly,” said Christian Vokes, who sat out last year’s game with Riverview, an 18-0 Raiders win, because of a knee injury.

“We knew Riverview was coming in off two straight wins, so we couldn’t come in here hot-headed. We couldn’t underestimate them.”

Springdale (6-2, 2-2) has won two in a row after conference losses to Jeannette and Greensburg Central Catholic and remains alive for a WPIAL playoff spot in Class A.

Dynamos coach Seth Napierkowski said his team needs to take care of business in its final two conference games — next week at home against Clairton and on the road at Leechburg in two weeks — and then see what happens.

“We can only worry about the game in front of us,” Napierkowski said. “If we win out, we’ll give ourselves a shot.”

Springdale forced Riverview to punt on all five of its first half possessions, and the Dynamos converted three of the resulting scoring drives into points.

Vokes tallied scoring runs of 8 and 5 yards, and Matt Haus booted a 28-yard field goal as Springdale led 17-0 at halftime.

The Dynamos opened the second half with the ball and drove 60 yards, mixing in the pass with the run. Dmitri Fritch found a wide-open Cavin Kindler in the end zone from 5 yards to cap the march. The point-after kick was no good, but Springdale was ahead 23-0.

In control from there, the Dynamos completed the scoring in the fourth with a Haus 26-yard field goal and a 5-yard run by Brandon Green.

Vokes finished with 13 carries for 78 yards, Fritch ran the ball 10 times on keepers for 39 yards and Kindler recorded 58 yards on nine attempts.

Fritch also went 6 of 8 passing for 54 yards and the score.

Springdale slowed a Riverview running game that tallied 275 yards against Jefferson-Morgan last week.

Zach Hanlon, the Raiders’ leading rusher and a bruiser at 220 pounds, was limited to 50 yards on 12 carries. Dean Cecere had eight rushes for 23 yards.

“I have to give a lot of credit to my coaching staff,” Napierkowski said. “They did a great job in the film room this week picking up on some tendencies that Riverview had that we were able to use to our advantage to get guys in position to make plays.”

Things began well enough for Riverview (2-5, 1-4) as on the opening drive of the game, Hanlon recorded a pair of runs for 15 yards.

But on the third play, a snap over the head of quarterback Justyn Slebrich resulted in a 30-yard loss. From there, Riverview wasn’t able to generate enough momentum on either side of the ball to stay in the game.

“I don’t know what happened tonight,” Riverview coach Todd Massack said. “Springdale’s a good football team. Don’t get me wrong. But we just couldn’t find anything. It was a tough night. I feel bad for the guys because I know how fired up they were with it being homecoming, the atmosphere and playing Springdale under the lights. But for whatever reason, we couldn’t get it done this week.”

Riverview faces a daunting task Friday against Jeannette, the No. 1 Class A team in the WPIAL and the state.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Riverview, Springdale