EDGARD — It was a River Parishes showdown when Riverside Academy (5-1) traveled to Rudolph G. Dinvault Stadium to take on West St. John (2-5).

Riverside collected its fifth consecutive victory with a 44-6 win over the Rams.

The Rebels kicked off the game strong, scoring a touchdown in the first few minutes of the first quarter. After adding a field goal, the quarter ended 9-0 for Riverside.

“It was a team effort,” Riverside Academy head football coach Bill Stubbs said. “It’s what we’ve been looking for all year and we’re really starting to play like a team. A lot of folks were involved tonight, and that’s what we were looking for.”

Most of the Rebels had a chance to get field time. By the third quarter, Stubbs said he was using his third team.

“I tried to play a lot of guys,” Stubbs said. “You know those guys out there, they worked as hard as everybody else worked. Every opportunity we have to get them on the field a little bit on Friday night, we’re going to do that.”

Stubbs said that even though he was pleased with the game’s outcome, there is always room for improvement.

“You can always play better,” Stubbs said. “There is a never a game where you can say it’s flawless. We’ll get on film and see what things we need to work on and we’ll get on it.”

West St. John head football coach Brandon Walters said he thought the Rebels had the ball in a good position every play.

“It makes it easier for them to get where they need to be,” Walters said. “Bad punts, giving them the ball and giving them the short field kind of hurt us early on, and we never recovered from it.”

Walters said next week WSJ will be working on execution.

“Execution has been our nemesis.,” Walters said. “Not blocking well, not tackling, blowing assignments, miscues, you name it. It’s been pretty ugly and it all boils down to execution.

The Riverside Rebels closed their post-game wrap-up with a prayer for West St. John junior Daniel Donte’ Woolen, who suffered a neck injury during Friday’s game and was transported to a local hospital.

By Courtney Griggs