Roosevelt playing with injured quarterback Caelan Riley, fell behind early in the game, but rattled No. 4 ranked Sherwood with a late comeback at home on Friday night, Sept. 5, in a 31-18 loss.
“It’s hard to find a moment in my coaching career where I’ve been prouder of a group of players,” said RHS Coach Ryan McCants, after the Riders gave the Bowmen a scare, electrifying the near-capacity home crowd with three touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
Roosevelt had to over-rely on its running game most of the night as an elbow injury prevented Riley from throwing. Meanwhile, Sherwood scored on its first possession with a long drive to take a 7-0 lead in the first quarter. The Rider defense then began to slow the Bowmen’s offense with some impressive plays including Dominyk Foster sacking Sherwood’s quarterback for a drive-ending, 10-yard loss.
But the Riders’ inability to move the ball offensively gave Sherwood repeated opportunities, and the Bowman methodically built a 24-0 lead as the fourth quarter began.
Then Roosevelt exploded. Sophomore Ezra Arp entered the game as quarterback and launched a 50-yard bomb that sticky-fingered wide receiver Naheem Campbell hauled down at the Sherwood 23-yard line. A few plays later, Arp hit Riley, now playing tight end, for the touchdown, making the score 24-6 with 10:16 remaining in the game.
The Rider defense led by all-purpose linebacker Geo Burks, stuffed Sherwood on their next possession. Arp then winged a 40-yard pass that Riley caught on the Sherwood 30-yard-line and then, like a Brahma Bull, dragged a would-be Bowman tackler on his back to the 10-yard-line. Arp then hit Burks with a touchdown pass closing the gap to 24-12 with seven minutes left.
On Sherwood’s next possession, RHS linebacker Miles Green rocked a Bowmen ball carrier into fumbling, and the Riders recovered at the Sherwood 47-yard-line, as the hundreds of loud visiting Bowman fans suddenly grew quiet. Arp then begin aiming bombs toward the end zone in hopes of quickly scoring, but a Sherwood safety intercepted an aerial at the 15-yard-line, ending the miracle comeback.
Sherwood tacked on a final score with one minute left in the game extending their lead 31-12, but the Riders came back, as the offensive line out blew Bowman defenders, and Roosevelt rapidly motored downfield with Arp hitting Green for the 5-yard touchdown pass with second remaining and the final 31-18 score.
“I loved the way our defense played,” McCants said. “Offensively, it was too late, too late, but I think we captured momentum in the 4th quarter,” he added.
In other Portland Interscholastic League scores, Jefferson and Grant had tough nights, as the Democrats fell to Glencoe 46-12 and Grant lost to Oregon City 34-7.