Roosevelt vs. Ballard Football

By Dane Rogerson

            The Roughrider football team took down the Ballard Beavers on October 24, 19-13, in their second matchup of the year. The Roughriders came out strong on the first drive, with a seventy yard touchdown run from Jackson Reavis. The Roughriders scored one more time, and went into the locker room at halftime with a 13-0 lead over the rival Beavers. The third quarter was scoreless, as the Roughrider offense failed to put together a drive. Lucky for Roosevelt, the defense held strong throughout the third, until wearing down in the fourth. In the final twelve minutes of the fourth quarter, Ballard found the end zone twice, and closed the gap, only trailing by six with the score at 19-13 in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. Roosevelt’s run-heavy attack seemed to die down after halftime, as they never found the end zone again. Despite a sloppy game on both sides, the Roughriders pulled out an unnecessarily dramatic 19-13 win to advance to the Metro Championship game.

Moving on to the championship game against the 98th nationally ranked Eastside Catholic Crusaders, Roosevelt did not fair as well. On the cold Halloween night, the Roughriders came out strong, advancing the ball for two back to back first downs on the Crusaders before having to punt. Things went downhill from here for the Roughriders, after an immediate response form the Crusaders with a thirty yard punt return and touchdown later that series. There was much of the same throughout the first half, as both teams left the soaking wet field and filed into the locker rooms at half with the score 41-0 in favor of Eastside Catholic. In the third an fourth quarters the Roosevelt defense toughened up and didn’t allow another point, but could not find the end zone themselves. The final score remained 41-0, but both teams are guaranteed playoff births. The Roughriders will ride again against Central Kitsap High School on Saturday the 8th at Memorial Stadium at 4:00 P.M in the first round of the state playoffs. Go out and support your team.