By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

RESERVE — Class 2A No. 2 Riverside overmatched visiting W.L. Cohen Friday night with the Rebels earning a 68-8 victory to remain undefeated.

Jordan Loving tossed three of his four touchdown passes in the first quarter of play and tallied 115 yards through the air, completing seven of his eight pass attempts.

The Rebels (5-0, 2-0) spread the wealth offensively. Each of Riverside’s seven offensive touchdowns was scored by a different player. Darrion Cook led all receivers with three catches for 44 yards.

Hardell Mack scored on a 1-yard plunge early in the first quarter to get Riverside up and rolling. Loving then went to work, finding Herb McGee, Tyler Gauthier and Von Julien for touchdowns of 17, 25 and 15 yards respectively.

The defense struck next when Jordan Walker intercepted a pass and took it to the house for a 25-yard return to make it 34-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Loving connected with Cook for his final scoring pass of the night. Brandon Sanders, DeAndre Wilson and Jared Butler each scored rushing touchdowns in the second half, while Garland Robinson scored on his own interception return. The Rebels led 68-0 in the fourth quarter before Cohen (0-5) scored its lone touchdown.

“What we talked about this week, trying to get better each and every snap, that it doesn’t matter who we play but how we play,” Riverside coach Bill Stubbs said. “We really pushed that hard this week and I was pleased to see our kids really respond to that. We weren’t judging it by the scoreboard tonight.”

The veteran coach was pleased so many of his younger players and backups were able to see the field once the game was in hand early.

“These younger kids, they practice hard and put in a ton of work,” Stubbs said. “For our first team, we wanted to get the job done (and put the game away early) so we can get out and support our younger guys. And the young guys played very well.”

For Loving, the efficient night was just one more in a string of them. Through one complete half of the regular season, Loving has thrown just one interception in over 100 pass attempts.

“That’s been a real joy for me,” Stubbs said. “He’s responded to everything we’ve asked of him. We asked him to protect the ball, be smart, play within the confines of the offense and of what we do well. He’s embraced that.

“He understands he has a great supporting cast around him and he knows his job is to get them the ball. I couldn’t be any happier with him from that standpoint.”