RIVERSIDE MAKES STATEMENT AGAINST MCGUFFEY @RiversidePN

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PFN Staff | November 11, 2019

Mark Ross

Playing on the edge is nothing new to this year’s 2019 Riverside Panthers. Having to win 3 of their last 4 games to enter this year’s WPIAL Playoffs, then being seeded 14th in the playoff brackets these Panthers know what it’s like to play with your backs to the wall. But his years Panthers team is built different with its whatever it takes mantra, they are now playing their best football of the year by upsetting Burgettstown in Round 1, and then this past Friday upsetting another higher seeded playoff team in McGuffey 41-27.

Behind the play of quarterback Ben Hughes, who rushed for four touchdowns, and threw for one more Riverside is now a team playing with a lot of confidence going into their semi final game next week against a very talented Avonworth team. “We’ve been working extremely hard on getting better in everything we do” said Hughes, “we worked all week on correcting our mistakes and getting better, and it showed tonight. They showed on film that we would see them play their normal 50, and going to blitz their backers, we felt we could block them straight on and do well against it and it showed, or line played extremely well tonight.”

When asked about the Panthers being the 14th seed and now advancing to the semi finals Hughes said “We earned our way here Coach Sciarro told us there are 28 teams that want to be in our spot, no one is gave us a shot or expected us to be here, we just have to keep earning it and playing hard. We’ve been to the semi finals twice before we need to get over the hump, this isn’t new to us we just need to keep playing like we have been.”

And for this team to keep playing it must continue to get the effort from their offensive, and defensive lines like they have been the last two weeks for them to have any chance to advance beyond the semi final round. Said Senior stand out two way lineman Payne Hoover “ We are improving, we are playing well both defensively, and offensively up front, we are working hard – we have great line coaches that continue to push us – this all started during the off season and in the summer, I knew the work we put in would pay off for us, and it has showed the past two weeks, we just need to keep doing what we have been doing.”

Riverside will face Avonworth this Friday at Chartiers Valley at 7pm

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