Riverdale's Adam Davenport follows his blocking.Photo courtesy Pat Smith, Official Photographer, Riverdale Football
Grayson Powell’s 28-yard field goal with 43 seconds left lifted Riverdale to a 20-17 victory over No. 1-ranked Knoxville Farragut at Warrior Stadium Friday night.
The impressive win was the second straight three-point decision over a top-ranked opponent for Riverdale, now 5-1 with its only loss a one-point overtime defeat at Hendersonville, after an overtime win over archrival and highly ranked Oakland last week.
Powell’s second field goal of the game held as Riverdale gave up a couple of first downs to the Admirals’ potent passing attack but never were threatened with the game ending on an unsuccessful Hail Mary pass.
Farragut jumped out to a 10-0 lead over Riverdale in the first half, but with 13 seconds left Powell ended a good drive with a kick for three from 29 yards out.
An interception by CJ Overton in the third quarter led to a Warrior drive that ended with West squirting in from four yards out to tie the game at 10-10.
Late in the third Riverdale started a drive that ended on the first play of the fourth quarter as West plunged in from the one.
Farragut came right back to tie the game at 17 with about seven minutes left, but Riverdale kept the ball for most of the remaining time to set up Powell’s winning kick.
••• All but one of Rutherford County's Class 6A teams posted wins with Smyrna dropping a 36-34 decision to powerful Ensworth in overtime.
Oakland rebounded from last week's tough loss with a 52-7 hammering of Lincoln County while Siegel downed Hillsboro and La Vergne eased past Franklin County, 6-0.
In Class A Eagleville blanked Moore County, 27-0, while Middle Tennessee Christian School fell to Cannon County, 20-6.
Lancaster Christian's win streak ended with a 35-0 loss to Franklin Road Academy. ••• Riverdale and Blackman remain atop the District 7AAA playoff standings while MTCS is still leading District 9A.
The Warriors and Blaze are both 2-0 in district play with Oakland and Smyrna tied for third at 1-1. The top three teams from the district advance to the playoffs.
TSSAA official standings are available at http://tssaa.org/schdir/regionalstandings.cfm.
County teams return to district play this Friday with each game important in the playoff race.