Riverside			

Matt Lindamood's performance each week has sports writers talking and opposing coaches and players shaking their heads.

The Big Red senior running back put up impressive numbers for the fourth week in a row as he led a Parkersburg comeback effort that resulted in a 22-12 win at Riverside before a crowd of 2,500 stunned fans.

Lindamood scored all three of his team's touchdowns, running around, through and even jumping over defenders en route to 273 yards rushing on 26 carries. His scoring plays were 67, 17 and three yards, the final coming midway through the fourth quarter and capped another Big Red comeback as they knocked off the previously unbeaten Warriors while running their own unbeaten streak to 18 in a row.

While opposing fans marvel at "The Mood" the Big Red defense continues to find a way to make the big play when necessary. This time it was a shutout effort in the second half after falling behind 12-7 at intermission. A big third down sack by Zach Nolan and a blocked punt by Andy Thomas led to the go-ahead score while Thomas came through to knock down a fourth-and-goal potential touchdown pass on his own goal line early in the fourth quarter. With Lindamood breaking away for runs of 65 and 24 yards, PHS quickly tacked on an insurance touchdown and then sophomore Derek Wenzel came up with an interception in the Big Red end zone with 3:30 left to seal the victory.

As Lindamood pushed his season totals to over 900 yards rushing and 92 total points, the rest of the PHS offense managed just 31 total yards and did not complete a pass (except one to the other team) in four attempts. Riverside held a 15-11 edge in first downs, ran for 108 yards and completed half of its 20 passes for 168 yards. An amazing statistic for the usually ball-control fanatic Big Reds was that Riverside had the ball for nearly 27 minutes while PHS had it for only 21. In the first half the possession margin was 15:27 to 8:33 in favor of the home team, which ran nine more plays than PHS.

“Our defense really did a great job,’’ said Riverside coach Ralph Hensley. “But that 21 [Lindamood], he’s a man, and he’s hard to bring down. And he’s got some people in front of him that helped him too.’’

Riverside got on the board first after a blocked punt put the Warriors in possession on the Big Red 39 yard line. The home team was faced with a fourth-and-12 situation from the 30 when Nolan got a sack - but the play was wiped out by offsetting penalties and Riverside tried again. This time quarterback Chuckie Erby threw a touchdown pass but that play was wiped out by a penalty and the Warriors had to run another fourth-down play, this time from the 35. This time Erby hit Raheem Waiters in the end zone as the Riverside receiver out-leaped the PHS defender to pull down the six-pointer. The extra point kick was blocked by Matt Winans.

A 20-yard kickoff return by Steve Armitage gave PHS the ball on its own 33 and in one play Lindamood had tied the score. The bruising Big Red back, took a handoff up the middle, broke through the line, stiff-armed one tackler and then outran the rest up the sidelines to complete his TD journey. Tyler Warner's kick was partially blocked but there was still enough leg behind it to go over the uprights sideways instead of end-over-end. 

Riverside responded by driving to the PHS 20 but a fumbled pitch lost six yards and on fourth down Nolan, with help from Winans and Matt Littleton, was able to sack Erby for an eight yard loss. 

After a three-and-out offensive effort by the Big Reds, Riverside drove to the PHS 25 this time before running out of downs on miss-fired passes. But the Warriors got a break moments later with an interception and 20 yard return to the PHS six yard line. Two plays later Rashif Hill raced into the end zone to put the home team up 12-7 with 2:59 left in the first half.

Things were not going much better for PHS early in the second half until Nolan came up with a big sack followed by Thomas' blocked punt.

Starting from the Riverside 43, PHS went the distance in seven running plays, five of them by Lindamood. From the 17 the talented senior went up the middle, leaped over a pile of bodies at the line of scrimmage, got in the open and scored standing up with 3:32 left in the third quarter. On the conversion Thomas turned a nifty option play into two points and PHS led 15-12.

Riverside's speed enabled them to move to a first and goal at the PHS nine yard line but Chris James, Winans and Littleton took turns making key stops and on fourth down, Erby tried to pass over the middle only to have Thomas come across and break up the attempt.

From the shadow of their own goal posts, the Big Reds knew how to get out of that predicament. After a four yard run, Lindamood went up the middle again, broke free and sped up the left sidelines 65 yards to the Riverside 29 before he was run out of bounds. After a one yard gain by Joey Shafer, Lindamood side-stepped his way for 25 yards to the three and then followed his now dominating offensive line directly up the middle standing up with 7:22 left in the game. Warner's kick made it 22-12 and forced Riverside into a two-possession game.

With just over five minutes left on the clock, the Warriors came upon a fourth down near midfield and oddly enough elected to punt. The kick went to the PHS 12 yard line and ploy appeared to have worked when the Big Reds fumbled the ball away three plays later at the 25.

But on the first play from scrimmage following the fumble, Riverside tried to go deep to the end zone and Wenzel was there to intercept and wisely take a knee. PHS was then able to run out the clock.

Parkersburg (4-0)             7    0    8    7    -    22

Riverside (3-1)                 6    6    0    0    -    12

R - Waiters 35 pass from Erby (kick failed) 4:36 1st

P - Lindamood 67 run (Warner kick) 4:17 1st

R - Hill 12 run (kick failed) 2:59 2nd

P - Lindamood 17 run (Thomas run) 3:32 3rd

P - Lindamood 3 run (Warner kick) 7:22 4th

                                                         PHS      RIV

                   Score.........................       22       12

                   FIRST DOWNS...................       12       15

                   RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............   43-317   34-105

                   PASSING YDS (NET).............        0      169

                   Passes Att-Comp-Int...........    4-0-1  21-11-1

                   TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS.....   47-317   55-274

                   Fumble Returns-Yards..........      0-0      0-0

                   Punt Returns-Yards............      0-0     2-23

                   Kickoff Returns-Yards.........     2-55     2-57

                   Interception Returns-Yards....      1-0     1-19

                   Punts (Number-Avg)............   3-25.0   3-26.3

                   Fumbles-Lost..................      2-1      2-0

                   Penalties-Yards...............     4-30     8-50

                   Possession Time...............    21:01    26:59

                   Third-Down Conversions........   1 of 8  3 of 11

                   Fourth-Down Conversions.......   1 of 2   2 of 5

                   Red-Zone Scores-Chances.......      2-2      1-3

               Parkersburg                          Riverside

   Rushing         No  Yds TD Lg  Avg    Rushing         No  Yds TD Lg  Avg

 Lindamood, Matt 26  287  3 67 11.0   Hill, Rashif    17   97  1 16  5.7

 Thomas, Andy    12   15  0  9  1.2      Walls, Adam      5   10  0  3  2.0

 Shafer, Joey     4   13  0  5  3.2           Belcher, Marvin  1    0  0  0  0.0

 Butterfield, A.  1    2  0  2  2.0            Erby, Chuckie   11   -2  0 11 -0.2

 Passing         AttCmpInt Yds TD Lng  Passing         AttCmpInt Yds TD Lng

 Thomas, Andy      4-0-1     0  0   0     Erby, Chuckie    21-11-1  169  1  35

 Receiving        No.  Yds   TD Long   Receiving        No.  Yds   TD Long

                                                       Waiters, Raheem    3   67    1   35

                                                       Allen, Dustin      3   44    0   19

                                                       Gray, Thomas       2   39    0   27

                                                       Hill, Darrell      2   11    0    8

  Punting          No.   Avg Long I20   Punting          No.   Avg Long I20

 Warner, Tyler      2  37.5   43   0       Erby, Chuckie      2  36.0   43   1

 TM                 1   0.0    0   0           TM                 1   7.0    7   0

   Punt returns     No.  Yds   TD Long   Punt returns     No.  Yds   TD Long

                                                       Harmon, Jacob      1   10    0   10

                                                       Stump, Joshua      1   13    0    0

  Kick returns     No.  Yds   TD Long   Kick returns     No.  Yds   TD Long

 Armitage, Steve    1   20    0   20      Waiters, Raheem    1   17    0   17

 Roush, Stephen     1   35    0   35      Gray, Thomas       1   40    0   40

Team     Qtr Time   Scoring play                               Conversion                Plays-Yards  TOP      PHS - RIV

 ----     --- ----   ------------                                               ----------                -----------  ---  -----------------

 RIV      1st 04:36  Waiters, Raheem 35 yd pass from Erby, Chuckie  Ivey, James kick blockd      7-39     4:02        0 - 6

 PHS      1st 04:17  Lindamood, Matt 67 yd run              Warner, Tyler kick           1-67     0:13        7 - 6

 RIV      2nd 02:59  Hill, Rashif 12 yd run                        Ivey, James kick failed      1-6      0:31        7 - 12

 PHS      3rd 03:32  Lindamood, Matt 17 yd run              Thomas, Andy rush            7-57     2:53       15 - 12

 PHS      4th 07:22  Lindamood, Matt 3 yd run                Warner, Tyler kick           5-98     2:09       22 - 12