It turns out the extra time off didn’t hurt the Washington football team too much, as it benefited from several big plays on offense and a sturdy effort on defense to top Riverside 38-13 on Friday night.
For the Pam Pack (2-1, 3A Coastal Conference), it was the its first game in over a week as Hurricane Irene forced the team to cancel last Friday’s road game with Northside.
Riverside felt the affects of Irene as well, as the Knights (1-3, 1A Four Rivers) had to play Monday night against South Creek before having to face Washington.
Led by quarterback Jimmy Davis, WR/RB Keane Graham and running backs Marquest Jackson and Markel Spencer, the Pam Pack churned out a pedestrian 208 yards on 34 attempts. However, the team had scoring runs of 72, 6, 30 and 19 yards, and that doesn’t include a 32-yard halfback option pass and the team’s 34-yard interception return for a score.
Riverside, who was playing without star wideout Ramelle Lanier or running back Jamal Whitehurst, simply did not have the firepower to match up with the Pack on Friday.
Washington took a lead the first time it got its hands on the ball as quarterback Jimmy Williams kept the ball on a mid-line option and darted 72 yards down field to the end zone.
That play was effective until the Knights adjusted.
“We started off the game with a mid-line and Jimmy pulled it back and ran 72 yards,” Washington coach Sport Sawyer said. “Then, they started stopping it and blitzing up the middle. Then, we started to make adjustments by trying to go to the outside and that’s where we started gaining some more yards.”
Riverside scored on its second possession of the game as quarterback Matt Wisniewski threw a screen pass to Riverside’s 6-8 WR Marcus Freeman, who turned it into a 32-yard touchdown to take a 7-6 lead.
“Going into the game I told our coaches that we were going to have to throw a lot,” said Riverside coach Asim McGill, who graduated from Washington High School. “Marcus did a good job, we were just limited with what we had on offense.”
The Knights would pull ahead of the Pack shortly after when burly running back Jadarian Byrd scored from six yards out, putting his team up 13-6 with 1:44 left to go in the first.
After that, the two teams would remain scoreless until right before halftime when Sawyer dialed up a trick play as WR D.J. Bell threw a 32-yard scoring pas to Devontae Corprew to give Washington a 14-13 advantage with :41 to go before halftime.
That TD would start a string of 32 unanswered points that would push the Knights out of the game.
The Pack’s explosive plays were too much to overcome for Riverside.
“They had a couple of big plays. Their first two scores were a 72 yard touchdown and a reverse pass,” McGill said. “That’s two big scores right there and each was a big momentum builder for them.”
In the third quarter Williams scored on a 30-yard run, while Graham dashed 19 yards to glory.
Leading up to the game, Sawyer said he needed his skill guys to block on the edge and on Friday they did that.
“We told the receivers that they would have to block for us to win and I feel like when we started going outside they were blocking,” Sawyer said.
In the fourth, William Cutler nailed a 25-yard field goal and Corey Davis returned an interception 34 yards for the final score of the game

Riverside    13    0    0    0    —    13
Washington    6    8    14    10    —    38
Scoring summary
W — Jimmy Williams 72 run (Will Cutler kick failed), 9:37, 1st
RS — Matt Wisniewski 32 pass to Marcus Freeman  (Andy Davis kick), 7:47, 1st.
RS — Jadarian Byrd 6 run (Davis kick failed), 1:44, 1st.
W — D.J. Bell 32 pass to Devontae Corpew (Keane Graham two points), :41, 2nd.
W — Williams 30 run (Cutler kick) 8:15, 3rd.
W — Graham 19 run (Cutler kick), 1:08,  3rd.
W — Cutler 25 field goal, 7:39, 4th,
W — Corey Davis 34 interception (Cutler kick), 6:50, 4th.