The Charleston High School Tigers walloped the Riverside Bulldogs 46-8 during homecoming at Tiger Stadium Friday night, Oct. 6.
CHS improved to 5-2 while Riverside fell to 3-4.
“It’s always good to get that homecoming victory,” said Charleston head coach LaDon Taylor, who noted that the Tigers were able to utilize all of their players during the course of the game.
“That was a great thing,” he added. “We understand that we have to try to get some of these younger guys ready to go, for playoff time.”
CHS head coach LaDon Taylor
In addition to it being homecoming, Riverside was the Region 3-2A opener for Charleston.
“We played well, we did a lot of good things, but we still did some things that are not good that we have to continue to work on cleaning up, but that’s going to happen,” said Taylor. “Overall, we played a pretty good game.”
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Charleston opened up a solid lead in the first quarter, first by notching a safety for a 2-0 advantage.
Quarterback Devon Olive scored on a 1-yard sneak, then ran in the two-point conversion. Later, Marcus “Deuce” Flowers broke free en route to a 37-yard TD run. Olive connected with Omar Wilson for the conversion and 18-0 advantage.
In the second act, Quentin Carter scored an 8-yard rushing TD. The conversion failed. CHS led 24-0.
Another CHS quarterback, Latese Edwards, connected with Brandon Henderson for a 19-yard touchdown. Edwards ran in the two-pointer for the 32-0 halftime lead.
The Tigers scored in the third quarter on a 21-yard run by Timothy Kirk Jr. Eric Hampton pulled in the conversion pass from Olive.
Charleston’s final points of the night came early in the fourth quarter on a 44-yard touchdown run by Daevon McCord.
Riverside finally found the end zone late in the fourth quarter on a 29-yard touchdown run and conversion carry against CHS reserves.
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Statistically for Charleston, Olive completed 2-of-9 passes for 46 yards and Edwards 2-of-3 for 27. Maquarious Kimble had one pass attempt, which was intercepted.
Wilson snared one reception for 34 yards, Henderson one for 19 yards, Hampton one for 12 yards and Kashwaun Drain one for 8 yards.
Nine Charleston runners made the stat sheet, contributing to the 322 rushing yards gained by the Tigers.
Flowers had seven carries for 104 yards, Kirk three for 55, Carter five for 46, McCord one for 44, Coreyun Spearman two for 23, Kymtorius Williams one for 22 and Edwards two for 19. Cashaw carried once for 5 yards and Olive twice for 4 yards.
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Taylor said he was “happy about the turnout from the different classes that came to tailgate and be a part of the homecoming.”
“It was really nice to see a lot of people come back and be here with us on homecoming, including a lot of former players that I’ve coached,” he continued. “It was a really good atmosphere for homecoming. Hopefully, we can just continue to build on that atmosphere every year.”
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This week, the Tigers will be on the road to Greenville to face the O’Bannon Greenwaves, who fell to 4-2 on the season after their 28-0 loss last week to North Side.
Taylor said O’Bannon is “always loaded” with athletes.
“They have some very good athletes, and we’re going to have to make sure we keep out eye set and just do what we do,” the coach noted. “They’re going to have speed and some big guys, so we have to make sure we’re doing everything right.”
