Outside of Riley, however, the Golden Knights’ offense had rather modest numbers due in large part to a suffocating defense and stellar special teams, often giving the offense a short field to work with.
Heading into the game, El Rancho (3-2), which is ranked fifth in the Southeast Division, was led by tailback Art Franco. Franco had averaged 172 yards a game and 8.3 yards per carry entering Thursday.
After the St. Francis defense was done with him, he was held to 16 yards in eight carries.
“Our defense played great,” said Riley, also a safety, who was part of a defensive effort that relinquished just 205 total yards.
That final tally was deceiving, however, as El Rancho converted just one first down and gained but 26 total yards in the first half, which St. Francis ended with a 28-0 advantage.
After stalling on its opening drive of the game, St. Francis scored on four consecutive possessions.
Fullback Chris Cabrera powered in for a one-yard first-quarter score to get the ball rolling.
Riley scored on a 10-yard run untouched with 11:54 to go in the half to make it 14-0.
“I think the O-line did a heckuva job opening up holes for me,” Riley said.
Quarterback Justin Posthuma hit Ian Hamilton on a 7-yard slant play for a 21-0 score before Riley closed out the first-half scoring.
Punter Ian Sternau pinned El Rancho back at its own 5 to start its first possession. It began a one-sided battle of field position won by the Golden Knights.
During St. Francis’ string of first-half scores, it started in El Rancho territory twice and never worse than at its own 42.
Another Riley score in the second half put most of the St. Francis reserves in.
El Rancho scored in the third quarter, but Brett Nelson hit Travis Talianko for a 26-yard scoring grab to push the margin back to 35 points.
Perhaps most impressive was the fact that El Rancho, coming off a bye, had 13 days of preparation, while St. Francis had a short week.
They came out with some different stuff,” said Posthuma, who needed to throw for only 75 yards, while Nelson threw for 88. “We did what we had to do. We got the win, that’s the most important thing.”
