Brimfield Insurance’s Andrew Madonio presents the Kent Roosevelt football team with The Big R Trophy following the Rough Riders’ 28-14 win over the Ravens on Friday in Kent.
Robin Golden/Special to Portage Sports

By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

For three quarters, the Kent Roosevelt football team struggled to find answers.

They trailed arch-rival Ravenna 14-7.

They had run only 22 offensive plays to the Ravens’ 58.

They had converted only six first downs, with three of those coming in the game’s opening 3 minutes.

Their electric offense was mired in three-and-outs and mistakes.

Kent Roosevelt receiver Sevyn Jones breaks free for extra yards during a second-half reception.
Robin Golden/Special to Portage Sports

Their defense had been on the field for an extended period of the game and were showing signs of exhaustion.

And even with all of that, there was still some good news for the Rough Riders.

There was still a fourth quarter to figure things out.

Boy, did they.

Roosevelt scored 21 unanswered points to stage a thrilling 28-14 come-from-behind Metro Athletic Conference home victory in the rivalry commonly and simply referred to as “The Game.”

“Perseverance,” Kent Roosevelt head coach Kardell Jackson said. “That is what it came down to. In a rivalry game, you always are going to expect a good game and Ravenna came ready to play tonight. At halftime, we talked about wanting it more and having a will to win. The guys started to feel it in the second half, and we were finally about to put it all together.”

Junior Chace Dennison was in the center of the action for the game-tying and go-ahead scores for the Riders in the fourth quarter.

First, to pull Roosevelt (6-4, 4-3 Metro Athletic Conference), even with the Ravens, Dennison pulled in a wide-receiver screen from quarterback Kingston Bryant that very nearly ended up losing yardage when the Ravenna defensive back anticipated the play and bolted forward to disrupt it. However, Dennison made a shifty side-step move that kept the play moving forward.

Dennison then bubbled out toward the right sideline using his speed before slowing down, using patience to allow the blocking of the play to catch back up and once it did, Dennison turned on the jets again to sprint into the end zone for a 33-yard touchdown.

Isan Roberts’ extra point deadlocked the score at 14-14.

Facing a third-and-long on their next possession, the Ravens attempted to go to the air to pick up the first down.

Dennison, however, was ready to make another play.

Junior Chace Dennison had 57 yards receiving, a touchdown and had two interceptions for the Rough Riders.
Robin Golden/Special to Portage Sports

He tracked the overthrown ball and secured it for his second interception of the game. His small 6-yard return gave the ball back to the Riders deep in Ravens’ territory at the 35-yard line.

“We call him “Game Time Chace” for a reason,” Jackson said. “He has shown the ability to make big plays for all year long. We always talk about how big players make big plays and Chace did that tonight.”

Moments later, Roosevelt grabbed the lead on a 20-yard touchdown pass from Bryant to Sevyn Jones.

Jones was open from the slot position after Bryant pulled Ravenna’s defensive backs up by presenting as if he was going to throw another receiver screen, but then he quickly turned his hips and hit Jones in stride on a slant.

Jones did the rest of the work from there, using his speed and length to stride into the end zone for the go-ahead score. Roberts again hit the extra point to push the Riders ahead 21-14.

The two scores were bang-bang, occurring just 2 minutes, 29 seconds apart from each other.

Ravenna’s following possession resulted in a three-and-out deep in its own territory. The Ravens decided to punt it back to Roosevelt with about 4 minutes to play, but a low snap turned the designed kick into a fourth-down conversion running attempt that was stopped short to turn the ball over on downs to Roosevelt at the 25 that eventually turned into a security touchdown for the Rough Riders on a 2-yard run by Makhi Jones with 2:21 to play.

The fourth-quarter burst for Roosevelt was a polar opposite to how the first 36 minutes went.

Through three quarters, the Riders’ offense had totaled just 112 yards (32 rushing, 80 passing), six first downs, had two interceptions, lost a fumble and simply could not stay on the field to build any momentum.

Kent Roosevelt’s Oliver Walter is tackled by a collection of Ravens after Walter intercepted a screen pass.
Robin Golden/Special to Portage Sports

Sixty-three of those yards came on Roosevelt’s first possession of the game, w which included a 21-yard reception by Dennison and a 26-yard catch by Sevyn Jones and ended with a 5-yard touchdown run by Makhi Jones at the 10:13 mark of the first quarter. 

That meant that for the next 34 minutes (remainder of the first quarter, as well as the second and third quarters), the Riders’ offense produced just 49 yards of offense before coming alive in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, Ravenna’s gameplan hummed along for three quarters.

Long, sustained drives designed to eat up time of possession included drives of 12 plays, 16 plays and 14 plays at different points of the game. They regularly converted on third downs, gambled at times and successfully converted on three fourth-down attempts.

After falling behind 7-0, the Ravens (4-6, 2-5 MAC) got on the board at 8:25 of the second quarter on a 5-yard run by Mark Miller. The 2-point conversion pass failed and Roosevelt still led 7-6, which stood at halftime.

In the third quarter, Ravenna possessed the ball for nearly the entire quarter, and did take the lead with 4:08 remaining in the third on a 20-yard touchdown pass from Miller to Ethan McKamey. The two paired again on the 2-point conversion to give Ravenna, which turned the ball over twice in the Red Zone during the game, its 14-7 advantage.

Miller led Ravenna’s offense, rushing for 93 yards and throwing for 53 yards. McKamey had 48 yards receiving and 55 yards rushing.

Kent Roosevelt’s offense was highlighted by Bryant throwing for 135 yards, Sevyn Jones’ 72 receiving yards, Dennison’s 57 receiving yards and Makhi Jones rushing for 42 yards.

Friday’s game was the 112th all-time meeting between the two programs. Kent Roosevelt has now won four straight in the rivalry and now hold an all-time series lead of 55-54-3.