Offensive outburst results in 44-14 Beaver Falls win over Riverside in conference tilt

BEAVER FALLS — The Beaver Falls High School football team welcomed back members of the 1991 Midwestern Conference co-champions to Friday’s game against Riverside. Those Tigers shared the conference title with Riverside and eventual PIAA champion Aliquippa and, luckily, the rules allowed all three teams to make the WPIAL playoffs.

The 2022 edition, though, made its statement that co-champs is not really part of its plan as the Tigers prevailed 44-14 behind a highly-effective offensive showing.

The Tigers had 550 yards of total offense, scoring on their first three drives and six of nine overall – stopped only by a fumble, time running out in the first half, and the final drive with reserves getting their opportunities.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” said senior wide receiver Trey Singleton, who ran for one score and caught six passes for 228 yards and another score. He had 201 yards receiving at halftime but a 28-14 lead limited Beaver Falls to three second half pass attempts.

“I broke my hand at the beginning of the season and we’re just getting healthy now. Our goal is to run the ball, though, and pound out the yards.”

The Tigers did indeed run the ball 39 times and nine different players gained positive yardage. Senior quarterback Jaren Brickner passed for 235 yards and the TD to Singleton and ran for 93 yards and three TDs. He knew where the credit belonged though.

“I have to give a shoutout to my linemen – Damiano Sims, Connor Paolucci, Damian Lee, Sy’Mauri McCoy, and Thomas Tutwiler,” said Brickner. “They make sure I have plenty of time every time I drop back to throw. All my runs were called, none were scrambles because of pressure.

“We know we have to keep the intensity up, it’s what we work on in practice.”

That practice showed from the start as Beaver Falls took the opening kickoff and Isaiah Aeschbacher ran for 42 yards on the first play from scrimmage. Brickner connected with Singleton for 22 yards later in the drive and then ran in for the score from 11 yards. On the Tigers’ next possession, Brickner connected with Singleton for 44 yards and then Singleton scored from three yards.

Riverside, though, was playing as if it remembered 1991 as well with Robert Janis scoring on a 17-yard run.

A Brickner to Singleton pass of 34 yards put the Tigers back up by two scores but Beaver Falls’ next possession ended in a fumble. The next play, Sam Hughes connected with Noah George on a 44-yard scoring play. After Jackob Jackson caught the two-point conversion, Riverside had momentum and was within one score at 22-14.

“We weren’t locked in in the first half,” said Beaver Falls coach Nick Nardone. “But we did get locked in and our goal is to keep getting better.

“We played better, we got all our backs involved in the running game because they all worked hard and we’re continuing to work on our passing game. We played well.”

In fact, after that Riverside score, Beaver Falls played very well – scoring the final three touchdowns. Brickner scored on a 2-yard run, Datalian Beauford scored on a 13-yrd run and Brickner closed the scoring with a 47-yard run on a third down play.

Riverside had 168 yards passing from Hughes and 38 yards rushing from Janis but Janis watched the second half in street clothes.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Offensive outburst results in 44-14 Beaver Falls win over Riverside in conference tilt