Central Valley opens season with resounding 56-20 win over Riverside

Riverside's defense (white uniforms) attempts to stop the potent Central Valley offense in a Thursday night 8-Man game in Wolbach. Central Valley won the 2019 season opener Wolbach, NE. Central Valley won the game 56-20.

Wolbach, NE

Central Valley spotted Riverside a 20-12 first quarter lead before reeling off 44 unanswered points, enroute to a big season-opening 56-20 win over Riverside Thursday evening.

Although the teams had previously met only one time on the gridiron (last season), the game had the feel of a age old rivalry, which really does go back a few years considering Greeley, Wolbach and Cedar Rapids were together at one time and now Cedar Rapids and Spalding High make up the current Riverside high school.

You could almost feel that 2019 was going to be a special season for Jess Rother’s Central Valley Cougars even before the opening kickoff, with the roster count at 29 players. Just for comparison sake, there are Class C-2 eleven man football programs in Central Nebraska that have less bodies out for football this year.

And as for this matchup, Riverside suited up just 18 players for the game and featured a new head coach for the first time in the young school’s history after the departure of former head man Joey Imus, who took the head basketball job at McCook.

Despite the smaller roster numbers, the Riverside Chargers under head coach Corey Valasek (formerly at Pierce) came into this opener ready to play some football.

The way things progressed in that opening stanza, I wondered if the trusty scoreboard in Wolbach was going to short circuit after those 32 first quarter points lit that baby up.

Central Valley opened the game with a 5 play, 50 yard drive that culminated with an 8 yard right-to-left side reverse touchdown run by Cage Landers.

A little over 4 minutes later, Riverside answered with an 8 yard scoring run of their own by good looking quarterback Michael Bernt, a 190 pound junior who by the way, has a very strong passing arm.

The 6-2 Bernt connected with classmate Jeffrey Schmeits for the double extra point pass and the Chargers had themselves an 8-6 lead with 5:05 left in the first.

Things didn’t stay that way for long and you just knew what happened next was going to take place at some point during the game.

On the ensuing Riverside kick-off, Mr. Do-It-All, Jackson McIntyre fielded the ball right smack dab in the middle of the field on his three yard line, cut to his left, took advantage of some crisp blocking, then turned on the McIntyre jets for a spectacular 77 yard touchdown jaunt.

The long kick return by the speedy McIntyre must have fired up Riverside. It took only 1:18 seconds for Bernt to take his team downfield to score. The rangy QB took it in himself from 6 yards out, then a myriad of penalities and a fumble by Central Valley had the Chargers in business in nothing flat.

It all started at the Central Valley 17 with 3:28 left in that 1st quarter. Three straight holding calls, two following decent gains, had McIntrye and the boys pinned back at their own 8 yard line facing a 1st and 19.

125 pound junior quarterback Ty Nekoliczak, who by the way played a terrific game, coughed up the football on that first down play. Two plays later, Michael Bernt found Trey Carraher for a 7 yard touchdown pass play and the Chargers had a 20-12 lead after one stanza.

The came the Central Valley landslide and the Riverside downslide.

After Riverside running back Trey Carraher left the game with a concussion, the floodgates seemed to really open for Central Valley and a crazy, broken play may have started the whole thing.

What began as a flowing play to the right side for Central Valley suddenly broke down. The ball eventually ended up on the ground, but an alert Morgan Behnk scooped up the loose ball, spotted a wide open Cameron Kelly downfield and lofted a perfect 32 yard scoring toss to the 6-1, 160 pound senior End.

That knotted things at 20, but the Cougar defense, led by bonafide All-State candidate Trevor Cargill (6-3, 260 pound junior), turned up the pressure on Bernt and set up a pair of Central Valley touchdowns to close out the half, giving the Cougars a 32-20 lead at the break.

There was no scoring in the third quarter, although poised Riverside QB Michael Bernt had his team in scoring position twice, only to see the Cougars turn them away with some strong defense.

Riverside lost another player early in the final quarter and Central Valley’s stout defense simply wore the visitors down with constant pressure from Cargill and DE Morgan Behnk.

The Cougars 1000 yard rusher Jackson McIntyre added two more touchdowns in the 4th quarter, senior Kordaynian Thorin capped it off with a 24 yard scoring dash, and Jess Rother and the boys had themselves a 56-20 win to open the 2019 season.

Despite being held to negative yardage on 3 of his 12 carries, the flashy Jackson McIntyre was able to run for 101 yards and 4 touchdowns in the season opener. One hundred twenty five pound junior QB Ty Nekoliczak chipped in 43 yards on just 6 totes and teamed up with classmate McIntyre to hit 9 of 14 passes for 90 yards, but each did suffer an interception.

The stingy Central Valley defense limited Riverside to an unofficial 151 total yards, but QB Michael Bernt looked strong at times with his passing, completing his first 5 throws for 50 yards and score. The rifle-armed Bernt would finish the night completing 8 of 18 passes for 87 yards and a touchdown.

125 pound sophomore Connor Carraher had a pair of receptions for 42 yards, while Jeffrey Schmeits led the Riverside ground attack with 53 yards on 14 touches. At one point in the opening half, Schmeits was at 58 yards on just 5 carries, but the Cougars shut the hard running junior down the rest of the way.

Central Valley (1-0) will host always strong Giltner next Friday for a Homecoming matchup before having a Bye week, while Riverside will hit the road again to face Twin Loup next Friday before having a Bye week to heal up.

Twin Loup incidentally, opened up 2019 with a 44-22 win over Anselmo-Merna on Thursday night.

……………………………..1……..2……..3……..4……….F

Riverside (0-1)................20…….0……..0.…….0…......20

Central Valley (1-0)........12……20…….0…….24……..56

1st Qtr…………………………………………………………………………Riv..CV

CV...Cage Landers - 8 run……...……………..….PAT-Run failed………...0….6 (9:29)

Riv...Michael Bernt - 8 run.………………............PAT-Bernt to Schmeits..8….6 (5:05)

CV..Jackson McIntyre 77 Kick Return…………..PAT-Run failed…………8....12 (4:52)

Riv..Michael Bernt - 6 run………………………...PAT-Run failed…………14..12 (3:35)

Riv..Trey Carraher 7 pass from Bernt…………..PAT-Pass failed………...20..12 (2:17)

2nd Qtr

CV..Cameron Kelly 32 pass from Morgan Behnk PAT-McIntyre run….....14...20 (11:50)

CV..Jackson McIntrye 52 run…………………….PAT-Run failed....……...14...26 (10:46)

CV..Ty Nekoliczak 3 run…………………………..PAT-Pass failed.……….14...32 (4:44)

4th Qtr

CV...McIntyre 12 run…………………………...PAT-Nekoliczak to Behnk...20..40 (11:44)

CV...McIntyre 7 run………………………………..PAT-McIntyre run……....20..48 (10:30)

CV...Kordaynian Thorin 24 run….………………..PAT-McIntyre run...……20..56 (7:35)