BY TOM BRAGG, For Lootpress.com
QUINCY, W.Va. – Riverside hasn’t always had the best luck during the 2023 high school football season, but last week Bryce Green took luck out of the equation.
The Warriors held a 14-0 lead on South Charleston late in the second quarter, but the Black Eagles were driving and threatening to cut into that lead just before halftime. SC had found some success through the air in moving down near the Riverside goal line, but that’s when Green stepped up.
The senior running back/defensive back stepped in front of the Black Eagles’ pass attempt and took the interception 94 yards for a touchdown to give his team a 21-0 lead en route to 48-6 win for the Warriors.
Green finished with 100 rushing yards and three total touchdowns, and for his efforts he has been named the Lootpress Kanawha Valley Player of the Week.
The award is presented by Dutch Miller Auto Group.
“We were up 14-0 at that point and they were driving,” Riverside head coach Alex Daugherty said. “Things weren’t going our way, and the week before we were up on Capital in a tough game, a dog fight, and it went the other way for us with a couple of bad breaks. This time it went in our favor, but it could have easily been 14-7 going into the half. He turns the script and we’re up 21-0 at the half and it’s a completely different game.”
Green said South Charleston had been able to complete some passes on the drive by forcing him back down the field, but once they were near the goal line there was no room to push him back.
“They had two big post plays that they caught over the middle and I was getting sunk back into my deep third,” Green said. “I knew the quarterback was going to look for that again whenever they went out wide and they had us on the goal line so they really couldn’t push me back with their middle routes, so I sat down on it. I saw the quarterback’s shoulders go down and I just jumped it perfectly. After that it was a footrace and I just happened to win it.”
Green led the Warriors on offense as well, with Riverside needing to lean on him for leadership more than usual after quarterback Caden Ray injured a finger prior to last week and was ruled out for the remainder of the season.
The senior carried the ball 11 times for 100 yards with two rushing touchdowns, with most of that coming early as the Warriors pulled away for a blowout win in the second half. He even got to take a few snaps as the quarterback for the first time in his football career.
“As a team you have to change the game plan a little bit,” Green said. “The quarterback is such a vital part of the offense that when a guy like that goes down you have to rally around it. With him going down we had to lean more on the run, and the first possession I even played a little quarterback – which I had never done in all my years of football. It was interesting, but we had to make the moves and make the best of it.”
Winfield’s Jayce Miller won this week’s Community Choice fan vote, receiving nearly half of the 281,000 votes submitted. He now advances to the Community Choice poll, which will be conducted after the regular season with the winner of that poll awarded a $500 scholarship by the Lootpress Foundation.
Kanawha Valley Player of the Week winners
Week 1: Josh Moody, Nitro
Week 2: Chase Massey, Winfield
Week 3: Dane Hatfield, Herbert Hoover
Week 4: Preston Bonnett, Poca
Week 5: Matt Frye, Scott
Week 6: Hunter Giacomo, George Washington
Week 7: Noah Vellaithambi, Hurricane
Week 8: Bryce Green, Riverside
Community Choice Players of the Week
Week 1: Trey Lester, Sherman
Week 2: Chase Massey, Winfield
Week 3: Caden Ray, Riverside
Week 4: Noah Vellaithambi, Hurricane
Week 5: Blake Fisher, Herbert Hoover
Week 6: Preston Cooper, Scott
Week 7: Carson Brinegar, Scott
Week 8: Jayce Miller, Winfield
