Oliver shines on offense and defense as Royals pick up first win

BLOOMDALE– It's a good night for a team when its quarterback scores four touchdowns. What's even better is when that same player records four interceptions. In what was a huge night for senior Mitchel Oliver, Elmwood notched its first win of the season, a 28-11 victory over Riverdale at home. Oliver finished the game with 13 carries for 158 yards and two scores, four completions for 33 yards and two more touchdowns, and snagged a whopping four interceptions, including three in the second half. "I watched a lot of film this week and could see their plays," Oliver said. "I could tell some of their plays before they happened."Oliver, who began the season at receiver for the Royals, was forced to suit up under center following an injury to Elmwood's original starting signal-caller. The six-foot, 140-pound athlete stepped up to give the Royals their first victory in Week 8. "He was the best player on the field, that was obvious," Royals coach JT Bates said."I feel really good right now," Oliver said. "Good win with our new coaching staff, our players all played their hearts out. It just felt amazing.""He's a tremendous athlete, we're lucky to have Mitchel back healthy and playing well," Bates continued. "He's kinda flowed into this quarterback position out of necessity, he wasn't our quarterback early in the year when our quarterback got hurt. We challenged him with it. He came out and performed today, came out and played really well last week against Arlington. When he's on the defensive side of the ball, he's a ball hawk. He sees things a lot of other guys don't see, and makes great plays."Alongside Oliver in the backfield is fellow senior Marcus Mossbarger. Mossbarger, who also began the year as a receiver, moved to tailback. Mossbarger wound up with 66 yards on the ground on 16 carries, and would have had a 28-yard rushing TD if it hadn't been called back for a penalty. "Marcus Mossbarger did really great tonight," Oliver said. "I wish his touchdown at the end would have counted, but we had that holding call, unfortunately. He did really well, and picked up the energy in the game. He keeps my head on, keeps the team's head on, he's a really great captain and leader. He's just there for the team, and that's what we need.""The thing with Marcus is, he was slotted in as our best receiver going into the season," Bates added. "When we started getting injuries, Marcus played some quarterback, and then we found out, hey, this kid can run the ball pretty well. So, we moved him to tailback. We've been just morphing and adapting our team the whole entire season to get guys into the best positions to be successful. When you've got those two back there, anything can happen. They see a small seam, they can break it. They're nice weapons to have."The Royals were clearly hungry Friday, as it took them just three plays to find the back of the endzone. Mossbarger started the drive off with back-to-back runs, one for six yards and one for two yards, before Oliver erupted for a 58-yard QB keeper right up the middle of the Falcon defense. "Kudos to our guys who just keep coming in every single week," Bates said. "We're smaller than everybody we line up against, this was really good for the guys. They played their hearts out tonight."A very lengthy Falcons drive followed, and ended with a made field goal from sophomore kicker Cameron Snook to put Riverdale on the board. Quarterback Grant Inbody was steady early for the Falcons, with 87 passing yards at the half. Riverdale was able to get its offense in gear early using short-yardage passing and runs after the catch. As the game wore on, however, the Royals were able to adapt to the Falcons' short throws, and take advantage. "We started the game in cover three and were giving that up," Bates said. "We adjusted and went cover two, which squatted our corners on the flats and really seemed to help. When Mitchel can sit there and read it, he's more than likely gonna make a big play and pick something, which he did tonight. Great calls by both our coordinators tonight."Inbody finished the game with 144 yards through the air, completing 19 of his 36 passes, and also recorded a 30-yard pick-six for Riverdale's lone TD. Inbody's ability to read the defense and then decide to run the ball himself was on display as well, capped off by a 23-yard scramble late in the game. "That's what we teach him," Falcons coach Jon Wells said. "We give him one simple read, if that read's not there, sometimes it's a designed run. He's athletic enough to make people miss and get us positive yards on the ground."Receiver Cale Young was Inbody's favorite target in Friday's contest, finishing with 12 receptions for 92 yards, while being on the receiving end of Inbody's two-point conversion pass. Young snagged an interception on defense as well for the Falcons. Kydin Reed recorded three catches for 27 yards. Reed accounted for multiple tackles for loss on the defensive side of the ball. Trent Locke and Trent Brown each added 11 yards through the air. The Falcons, despite the loss, had moments where the offense fired on all cylinders. "We just have to do it for four quarters," Wells said. "We have to eliminate the turnovers."Riverdale converted four separate fourth downs on Friday, being able to extend their drives on multiple occasions."It's situational stuff," Wells said. "There were times when we felt like we had something we wanted to do, and were successful at it. Of course, I believe in our kids. They've been fighting their tails off all year, I didn't expect anything different tonight.""We've come a long way," Wells continued. "Start of the year, we wanted to be a running team. With injuries and whatnot, we kinda had to change and we went to a passing game for the last two weeks. They've really grown, we've just got to continue to get better and give ourselves a chance."The Royals, now up to 1-7, will be back at home this Friday, hosting the Van Buren Black Knights (5-3) at 7 p.m. The Falcons are still in search of win number one, hosting the 4-4 McComb Panthers on Friday at 7. Riverdale 3 8 0 0–11Elmwood 7 7 0 14–28SCORING PLAYSFIRST QUARTERELM - Oliver 58 Run (Williams Kick)RIV - Snook Field GoalSECOND QUARTERELM - Keiffer 7 Pass from Oliver (Williams Kick)RIV - Inbody Pick Six (2-pt Young Pass from Inbody)FOURTH QUARTERELM - Carr 14 Pass from Oliver (Williams Kick)ELM - Oliver 27 Run (Williams Kick)