Football Game Preview: Riverside at Greenbrier East

WHO: Riverside (0-0) at Greenbrier East (0-0)

WHERE: Spartan Stadium in Fairlea

WHEN: Friday, Aug. 30 at 7:30 PM

LAST MEETING: 2018: Greenbrier East 44, Riverside 24

The Greenbrier East Spartans open their 2024 season this Friday, Aug. 30 when they host the Riverside Warriors at Spartan Stadium in Fairlea.

Both the Warriors and Spartans are coming off 2-8 2023 seasons where not much went right for either.

However, the Spartans have new life this year and return a plethora of talented players, but just like last year, they are still relatively young. Just five seniors will don the sidelines and the field for East, but their junior class is expected to step up, lead, and produce several more victories.

ABOUT THE WARRIORS:

There is not a lot of information about the 2024 Riverside football team available anywhere. Like Greenbrier East, Riverside reclassified down to Class AAA and they have a new head coach, Heath Huffman, leading them on the journey.

Huffman was named head coach in March earlier this year after the sudden resignation from former coach Alex Daugherty. Huffman is familiar with the program and had been an assistant on Daugherty’s staff.

Huffman will bring a new dynamic and try to help improve a Warriors offense that averaged just 15.9 points per game a season ago. They scored just 159 points all season and 48 of those came against South Charleston, the lowest ranked team in the state last year, and 53 was against St. Albans. On the flip side, the Warriors defense allowed 35.8 points and struggled to contain even the most average offenses. East hopes their offense ranks somewhere along those lines.

–Players to Watch–

Riverside: QB- Dasani McCallister, RB- Malique Thomas, RB- Kaleb Shanklin, WR/DB- Jase Cook

Greenbrier East: QB- Brody Hamric, RB- Brady May, WR/Util- Nate Suttle, TE- Grant Burdette, WR/DB- Donavin Penn

The first game of the season is ALWAYS the toughest to predict–players and outcomes– as there is nothing to go on as to who may step up, make plays, and be ‘the star.’ The Warriors will need a whole new reset to improve on their numbers and production from last season and they are hoping the 6-foot-3 inch, 153-pound McCallister can lead that next step in the right direction from his field general position.

As young as East still is, they have the experience advantage in this game. Hamric was an honorable mention all-stater last year and if Suttle can remain healthy, he will provide a ton of help on the offensive side. Alleghany transfer Brady May is a physical runner, Burdette led the team last year with 515 yards receiving and Penn played very well in the scrimmages on offense and defense. Now, there are other options for the Spartans too, such as Kaden Stone (5 TDs last year) and Jysheim Green, but we will all have to wait and see who steps up and shows out.

Top 3 Keys to the Game:

1. East rushing attack vs. Riverside front seven

2. East OL pass protection for Hamric

3. East run defense on the edges

Summary:

The Spartans are fired up and ready to go. Their scrimmage season, for the most part, went well as they showed the potential of what they can be on both sides of the football. Against the Warriors, East will have a great opportunity to get this year started on a winning note and achieve half the win total of all last year in week one. I’m going to hold off on a prediction score for now, but I have a good feeling that head coach Ray Lee’s bunch will make the community happy and proud this weekend.

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