Josh Peterson

Friday night didn’t turn out the way Coffee County faithful would have hoped.

But the Central High School Red Raiders put all teams in 6A football on notice for next year – this team is serious about contending.

After winning 4 of their last 5 to close the season, the Red Raiders went on the road Friday to 9-win Riverdale, and were just a couple of plays away from leaving Murfreesboro with an upset.

Trailing 7-0 midway through the third quarter, Raider senior quarterback Connor Shemwell connected with Kelby Walker deep down the field for a 32 yard touchdown strike to tie the game at 7-7.

The Raider defense then turned around and forced back-to-back Riverdale punts, but the Raiders muffed the second punt inside their own 15. Riverdale scored two plays later to push ahead 15-7. Special teams mistakes were costly for the Raiders. It was a bobbled punt snap on the game’s first series that gave the Warriors field position inside the Raider 20 to put Riverdale up 7-0 in the first quarter. Two of Riverdale’s touchdowns came on short fields – 19 yards and 16 yards. The Warriors were only able to establish one lengthy drive on the Raider defense.

The final drive of the game was the best one for the Warriors – putting the game away on a 2-yard touchdown run by Lekoda Young to cap a 75 yard drive with 4:40 on the clock.

After struggling to get the offense going in the first half, Coffee County (5-6 overall) found life in the final two periods. CHS only had 61 yards of offense at the break and finished with 268, just behind Riverdale’s total of 314.

Shemwell finished 17-of-31 through the air for 207 yards, one touchdown and an interception in the end zone on a fourth-down play. Shemwell was key to pushing the Raider offense with the Warriors keying on tailback Konor Heaton, who had to claw his way to 66 yards on 16 carries.

Travis Martin caught 6 passes for 102 yards for the Raiders and Jahlin Osbourne five for 45. Walker had 2 catches – including the lone Raider touchdown.

The loss ends the season for the Raiders and the high school careers of a small senior class – Derrick Scott, Shemwell, Walker, Xavier Garcia, Tyler Myrick, Kurt Jesch and Michael DeLong.

The 2021 season marked several steps forward for the Raider football program. CHS made its first playoff appearance since 2016, won 5 games – the most since 2007 – and put together the team’s first 4-game winning streak since 2003.

Riverdale will play Lebanon next week.

THIS GAME WAS BROADCAST LIVE ON THUNDER RADIO. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE FIRST HALF.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SECOND HALF.