Lastie’s four touchdowns highlights Riverside Academy’s win at St. Thomas Aquinas

Hammond – The trenches are where football games are won.

Riverside Academy enjoyed the decisive edge at the line of scrimmage Friday night, riding a powerful running game to a 55-18 victory at St. Thomas Aquinas.

Dedric Lastie had 14 carries and 218 yards with four touchdowns on the ground. He added three receptions for 14 yards and returned three punts for a total of 40 yards.

Early in the game, both teams had explosive moments as the visiting Rebels led 21-12 by the end of the first quarter.

Martrell Henry rushed for touchdowns of 5 and 10 yards touchdown for Riverside. Sandwiched in between, STA’s Cace Reed broke free for a 42-yard touchdown with 8:31 left in the first.

Kohen Rowbatham rushed in for a 1-yard touchdown with 2:26 to go in the opening period after rushing for 41 yards the two plays prior in his first game for St. Thomas Aquinas.

Just under a minute later, Riverside has answered again. Brennan Maus caught a 27-yard touchdown to restore a two-score Rebels lead.

Riverside sophomore quarterback Brock Bourgeois connected on a deep ball to senior wide receiver Mason Smith for an 83-yard touchdown pass with 9:40 left in the second quarter for the only score of the quarter.

The game plan going into this game for Riverside was to start off by taking deep shots and making the Falcons respect the passing game. Coming out of the half with the lead, the game plan quickly became running the ball.

The third quarter started off slow butthen took a huge turn.

Reed rushed in for a 7-yard touchdown to make the score 28-18 with 7:33 left in the third.

Lastie had a night to remember. Make that a third quarter to remember. He rushed for three touchdowns in just under five minutes. First, Lastie broke free for a 51-yard touchdown, later breaking three tackles on a 21-yard touchdown run. Finally, Lastie ran into the endzone untouched on 17-yard touchdown with 1:32 left in the third.

For the final score of the night in the fourth quarter, Lastie’s 4-yard touchdown with 5:53 left capped the scoring in a decisive Rebels win.

The standout of the night was not satisfied despite the eye-popping numbers.

“I got to pick it up,” Lastie said. “I can’t just have these little 4-5 yard runs I need to start breaking them for longer.”

Riverside Academy won last year’s meeting, 62-23.

“So we knew offensively there were some things that we could do that we thought we were gonna hurt Riverside,” St. Thomas Aquinas coach Shane Mulhern. “Defensively, we had a game plan that felt like we’re gonna be able to make some big plays.”

The big plays came frequently from Riverside instead.

“Look, they are a lot better than we were last year, doing a good job,” Riverside coach Lee Roussel. “They got some good players, some talented players at the skill position, running an effective offense. That’s tough to stop. If you aren’t sound on defense and they did a good job in the first half and we made some adjustments in the second-half and did a good job. We had some plays in the past game that we want to take.”

Dedric Lastie had an impressive 14 rushes and 218 yards with 4 touchdowns on the ground. Lastie had three receptions for a total of 14 yards. Lastie also returned 3 punts for a total of 40 yards.

Riverside’s next game pits them against Newman while St. Thomas Aquinas will play at Episcopal.

Individual Top Statistical Performers:
Riverside

Dedric Lastie
14 rushes for 218 yards and 4 touchdowns

Kenric Johnson
7 rushes for 53 yards

St. Thomas Aquinas

Cace Reed
9 rushes for 63 yards and 2 touchdowns, 9 tackles
Kohem Rowbatham
6 rushes for 50 yards and 1 touchdown, 16 tackles