QUINCY- One down, nine to go.
It took a bit for the gas pedal to be pushed, but once it finally was, the Greenbrier East Spartans didn’t even need it and ended up on cruise control as they opened their 2025 season with a convincing 39-27 victory over the Riverside Warriors on the road on Friday night, Aug. 29.
It was the Spartans second straight year with a season opening win over Riverside.
East (1-0) went three-and-out on their first series and after a promising first play from the Warriors’ Malachi Hope, they eventually fumbled, and the ball was recovered by Braylon Godfrey of the Spartans to get the ball back to his offense.
But once again, the drive was over in just three plays and East punted the football back to the Warriors.
Then, on Riverside’s first play of the drive, quarterback Dasani McCallister was sacked and dropped the ball at the 2-yard line which Brayden Brown scooped up and stepped into the endzone for a score and the Spartans took an early 7-0 lead.
On the ensuing kickoff, Riverside put the ball on the turf yet again and once again, it was Brown who pounced on it for East. The Spartans rode AJ Godfrey down the field, but the drive stalled with a missed field goal and left points on the field.
The score stayed 7-0 after one.
The Warriors (0-1) answered early in the second and were aided by two critical Greenbrier East personal foul penalties. The drive was capped with a 10-yard touchdown catch from Logan Tudor as the Warriors knotted the score up at 7-all with 9:52 left in the first half.
That’s when it became the Spartan show.
On the following kickoff, East’s Nate Suttle took the ball, broke at least five tackles and outran the whole coverage en route to a 92-yard return for a touchdown. That put East up 13-7 after the missed extra point.
Greenbrier East then forced another fumble on the kickoff and recovered it in the process.
Spartan coach Ray Lee then decided to feed his big senior running back AJ Godfrey who runs hard and is a load to bring down. He rumbled for 25 yards on the drive including a 3-yard touchdown that finished off the 7-play, 41-yard drive. After Godfrey’s first score as a Spartan, East led 19-7.
That was the score at the break.
Another huge play from Brown on a high punt snap by the Warriors in which Brown shut the play down for a 25-yard loss, Godfrey put up a 24-yard run that eventually set up a 12-yard TD run from Hamric that extended the Greenbrier East lead to 25-7 with 6:49 remaining in the third quarter.
The Spartan defense, other than several, typical first game penalties, played a whale of a game. Logan Vanfosson got a sack late, Harrison Smith finished off a tackle for a 12-yard loss, and Keshawn Bland and Zyir Lee were everywhere around the ball.
East went up 33-7 on a beautiful 38-yard scoring toss from Hamric to Kaden Stone just three minutes into the final quarter. Godfrey converted the 2-point run as well.
Things got a little dicey for the Spartans just under the 6:00 mark of the fourth quarter when the Warriors scored two touchdowns in 12 seconds. The first was a 10-yard pass from Tavion Woods to Ty Arms and the second was a Spartan fumble with most of the younger players in, and Woods picked it up and ran it back the other way 48 yards.
But Godfrey executed a 5-play, 54-yard drive immediately after and finished with a 6-yard score as the Spartans wrapped up the scoring and came back home with a big victory to start this new football season.
Riverside scored a touchdown late to make it a closer outcome.
The Spartans gained 256 total yards while holding the Warriors to just 149, including four on the ground.
Godfrey was a workhorse with 31 carries, 182 yards, and two TDs. Hamric threw for 65 yards and a touchdown and ran for another.
The Spartans stay on the road next Friday, Sept. 5 when they head into enemy territory at Woodrow Wilson High School to take on the Eagles.
Stats courtesy of 103.1, The Bear.
