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GLENOLDEN — Alante Smith never will forget his last football game for Ridley, the senior rushing for 139 yards and two touchdowns to help spark the Green Raiders to a 42-19 win over Interboro at the South Avenue Athletic Complex.
A Thanksgiving game with seats full of fans, alums and school bands was the next best thing to the postseason, especially on this blustery, 50-degree day made for LL Bean and Eddie Bauer outerware.
“This atmosphere with the community coming out and showing love is like a playoff atmosphere, if not better,” Smith said. “We wanted to come out here and show the community that we appreciate all the love and support that they’ve been showing all season. Even though the season didn’t play out the way we wanted, we finished out with a great win here on Interboro’s field.”
The victory enabled the Green Raiders (5-5) to avoid a losing season and continue their mastery over the Buccaneers on Thanksgiving.
Yet after Smith burned the Bucs for a 78-yard scoring run on the first series, the shifty yet powerful back changing directions and avoiding tacklers from one side of the field to the other, Bucs freshman counterpart Momodu Rogers burst 28 yards, then nine and finally 40 yards to the end zone to knot the score.
Rogers, who rushed for 202 yards and the Bucs were not letting anybody off easy on this Thursday, battling back from a seemingly insurmountable 35-7 deficit at halftime to get within 35-19 with a fourth-and-goal at Ridley’s 3-yard line early in the final frame.
Bucs coach Dennis Lux appealed to the pride of his players, some playing their last game.
“Don’t give up on your team,” was the message according to Rogers. “Let’s play with Buc pride. If we lose, we lose together. If we win, we win together. Either way let’s just go out as a team. I just wanted (the seniors) to go out knowing we gave it our all. We wanted a win, but it didn’t turn out like that. But we’re still grateful for them and an opportunity to play some more here.”
Three turnovers, including two interceptions ultimately doomed the Bucs although they intercepted two Green Raiders passes, Josh Lloyd taking one of them to the house to make it 35-19 with 5:41 to go in the third quarter.
On a day of weird plays, the Bucs then got the ball when a kickoff into the wind headed back toward them, and they recovered for an extra possession. The Bucs know how that feels as they lost two such kicks in the first half, one of which the Raiders turned into a TD.
At any rate, after the Green Raiders stopped the Bucs on fourth down at the 3 early in the fourth quarter, the home team still was threatening to turn it into a one-possession game.
Ridley was facing third-and-11 while backed up inside their 10-yard line, turning that into one of the biggest plays of the day.
Nathan Barnshaw, who caught TD passes of three and 18 yards from Ryan Carroll in the second quarter, beat single coverage for a 12-yard gain that kept the sticks moving and crushed the Bucs’ momentum.
“I knew the ball was coming to me, the play was to me,” Barnshaw said. “I knew I had to catch the ball.”
Barnshaw and Dillon Varney, who caught a 77-yard pass from Carroll in the first half, got more opportunities to make plays because the Bucs were blanketing 1,000-yard receiver Khameen Powell.
Green Raiders coach David Wood told Powell he appreciated his patience and assured him he was making a difference by drawing coverage. Powell eventually caught a 20-yard scoring pass, the last TD of the day for the Green Raiders.
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Ridley’s Alante Smith tries to cut back during a run against Interboro amid a 42-19 Thanksgiving Day victory over the Bucs. (Pete Bannan – MediaNews Group)
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