Riverside upends Mentor, 34-31, in clash of Lake County football titans
Sep. 1—The Riverside football team has knelt down in the victory formation plenty of times in its history.
The one the Beavers executed Sept. 1 might trump them all.
After Mikey Maloney's 6-yard touchdown run with 40 seconds left gave Riverside a three-point lead over visiting Mentor, Sam Saliminen intercepted Cardinals quarterback Scotty Fox with nine seconds remaining, allowing Riverside to pull out a 34-31 victory in front of a standing-room-only, capacity crowd at Riverside Stadium.
Sam Saliminen pick clinches it for @_RHSFootball pic.twitter.com/zKnsUW7F7K
— News-Herald preps (@NHPreps) September 2, 2023
It's the first time another Lake County school has defeated Mentor since 1999 when Lake Catholic defeated the Cardinals, and it's the first time since 1961 that Riverside topped their neighbors to the west.
"This," defensive coordinator Jeremy Ishmael yelled to the team in the postgame huddle, "is one you're going to remember for a long, long time."
Touchdown @_RHSFootball . Mikey Maloney 6 run on fourth down. With 40 seconds left they lead @MentorRedline 34-31 pic.twitter.com/U3pnGUchDD
— News-Herald preps (@NHPreps) September 2, 2023
Standing among a massive throng of fans who stormed the field after the postgame chat with his team, Bors couldn't disagree with the magnitude of the victory his team had just won.
"Obviously there have been a lot of great wins here," Bors said, "but this is big. This was a big one tonight."
Mentor (1-2) looked as though it was going to pull off the miraculous comeback victory when Fox ran around left end for 26 yards and a touchdown to give the Cardinals a 31-27 lead with 3:21 left after Mentor trailed, 27-17, midway through the fourth.
Touchdown @MentorRedline . Scotty Fox 26 run. With 3:21 left Cards lead @_RHSFootball 31-27. pic.twitter.com/TWMigXTSlo
— News-Herald preps (@NHPreps) September 2, 2023
Riverside sophomore Kyndall McCaleb returned the ensuing kickoff to Mentor's 39 to ignite the comeback. The Beavers methodically moved to Mentor's 6 with less than a minute to go when Maloney swept right on fourth-and-1 for the touchdown.
"No one was going to stop me," Maloney said. "I can thank our guys up front. Without them, I wouldn't have gotten around the edge. It just comes down to who wants it more."
Mentor wasn't done. A long pass to Austin VanHuss got the Cardinals down to Riverside's 39. But after three straight incompletions, the Cardinals faced fourth-and-10 with no timeouts remaining — and that's when Saliminen picked off a pass and fell to the ground to set up the victory formation snap.
"It wasn't anything special," Saliminen said. "Just protect the sticks. I stepped in front of the ball and made a play.
"I just wanted to get the game over with. We worked hard all summer, in the weight room and on the field. This was just an incredible night."
Mentor looked as if it was going to blow out Riverside, taking a 17-0 lead in the first quarter on a Dylan Tackett field goal, a three-yard TD run by Fox and then a 17-yard run by the junior quarterback.
Oh Holy (Brady) McKnight! Touchdown in traffic. With 1:03 in the half @MentorRedline leads @_RHSFootball 17-14 pic.twitter.com/SEFw5kx7Yr
— News-Herald preps (@NHPreps) September 2, 2023
But Riverside finally got its offense going in the second quarter with Maloney connecting with Brady McKnight twice for touchdowns, the second of which being of highlight-reel material between two defenders.
"Never put your head down," Maloney said of his team's mindset. "We know we're always in the game no matter what."
Riverside took its first lead of the game at the 4:10 mark of the third when Maloney went around right end and outran the defense for a 40-yard score and a 20-17 lead. And when the reigning recipient of The News-Herald's Tony Fisher Award called an audible and hit paydirt on a 12-yard run with 10:33 left in the game, Riverside had a 27-17 lead.
Watch Mikey Maloney call the audible and score on a 12 yard run, . With 10:33 left in the game, @_RHSFootball leads @MentorRedline 27-17. pic.twitter.com/xjnaO30VcD
— News-Herald preps (@NHPreps) September 2, 2023
But Mentor responded with a 40-yard touchdown pass from Fox to Justen Hodge on fourth down to cut the gap to 27-24. A short while later, Fox's run made it 31-27 Mentor, setting up the thrilling finish.
Huge play for @MentorRedline ... fourth and six, Scotty Fox to Hodge for the 40-yard score. With 8:12 left @_RHSFootball leads 27-24. pic.twitter.com/TTQmUeGC9i
— News-Herald preps (@NHPreps) September 2, 2023
"First of all, our guys played hard," Mentor coach Matt Gray said. "They competed and responded. It came down to too many mistakes in all three phases in the game. ... We had opportunities to separate and finish drives. We did not do that well enough tonight and that's something we have to continue to do.
"We sit here at 1-2 football team, and that's not acceptable in this program."
Mentor faces Medina in a Greater Cleveland Conference opener next week, while Riverside takes its 3-0 record to Maple Heights in a nonconference game with a bull's-eye on them that's a heck of a lot bigger than it was prior to a signature win over Mentor.
"It is what it is," Bors said. "If you want to be where we expect to be as a program, the target exists. If it didn't exist, you wouldn't be doing things top-level teams do. All the top-level teams have a target on their backs. It comes with the territory. We're ready to carry on with it."
THE SCORE
Riverside 34, Mentor 31
