HS FOOTBALL: Rose carries Riverside past Holy Cross

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TAYLOR — Brayden Rose set the tone early with three highlight-reel plays in the first half, helping No. 9 Riverside roll past Holy Cross, 42-0, in a Lackawanna Football Conference game Friday night.

Rose took a lateral from Laiden Edwards on the opening kickoff and raced 74 yards for a touchdown.

“Before the game, I told coach we want the ball and the first time I get it on the kickoff, I definitely want to go to the house,” Rose said. “That just gets the whole team going. Laiden fielded it well, pitched it back to me, and all I saw was green grass. I hit the hole and went.”

Rose was just getting started.

After Riverside running back Charlie Anstett scored on a 3-yard run, Rose intercepted a pass and returned it 52 yards for a touchdown, ending a promising Crusaders’ drive and putting the Vikings ahead, 21-0, late in the first quarter.

“He’s a very special talent and I’m happy to have a kid like that in my first year,” Riverside head coach Jim Tucker said.

Rose added a 9-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter before making several defenders miss tackles while scampering 61 yards for his fourth score of the game with 2:33 remaining in the first half.

“It’s just instincts,” Rose said. “God gave that to me, so I’m very thankful.”

Tavion Gonzalez recovered a fumble for Riverside in the closing seconds on the first half.

Running back Julian Bowman closed out the scoring with a 4-yard touchdown run for Riverside (2-0) with 9:17 left in the fourth quarter.

“We battled, start to finish,” Tucker said. “We challenged the guys like we do every week. No matter the opponent, no matter the scoreboard, we want to give everything we have, every single play, like the game is on the line. I think we did a pretty good job of that tonight.”

Despite the loss, Holy Cross head coach Joe Giorgio praised his team’s character and ambition after the Crusaders (0-2) forfeited last week’s game because of a low number of players and injuries.

“We knew the deck was stacked against us, but just the fact that they wanted to play, they wanted to be out here, and regardless of the score, they gave the effort and that’s all I can ask for,” he said. “We’ll build off this and get ready for next week. Hopefully we can be competitive down the road. We’re going to learn from this — we’ve a very young team.”

Holy Cross quarterback Chase Rutkoski completed 10 passes for 113 yards with Luca Berardi hauling in eight of them for 103 yards.

“Chase started at quarterback last year as a freshman for us and I can just see the growth that he’s made,” Giorgio said. “He’s really improved and he’s reading the field a lot better.”

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