CHESHIRE - If the Rock Hill Redmen were an automobile, they’re offense would go from zero to 60 in a matter of seconds.

After falling behind 16-0 and trailing at halftime, Rock Hill’s came to life and scored 26 points in the third quarter en route to a 53-28 win over the River Valley Raiders Friday in the Ohio Valley Conference opener.

“Once we got going, we did all right,” Redmen coach Todd Knipp said.

“We never make anything easy. But after we got on track our offense got going. We played pretty well from the middle of the first quarter on out.”

Turnover hurt the Redmen early as River Valley turned two fumbles deep in Rock Hill territory into 16 points to start the game.

The first fumble led to a 25-yard pass from Bryan Morrow to Michael Cordell. Morrow threw to Ryan Henry for the conversion and it was 8-0.

The Redmen then fumbled the ensuing kickoff and River Valley was back in business.

This time Morrow ran 8 yards for a touchdown and his pass to Jason Jones upped the lead to 16-0 with 5:13 left in the first quarter.

But Rock Hill (4-2) bounced back with a pair of touchdown runs by Wes Pierson covering 25 and 4 yards. Shane Bostic ran for one conversion and the Redmen trailed just 16-14.

“We responded to adversity. We battled back and played together as a team. It was our best team effort since I’ve been head coach,” said Knipp who is in his third season as head coach.

River Valley (1-5) extended its lead to 22-14 on a 20-yard run by Morrow with 5:40 left in the half.

Rock Hill answered with a scoring drive capped by Josh Guy’s 8-yard run with just 1:07 left on the clock and it was 22-20 at the break.

Then came the third quarter and two River Valley fumbles that ignited the Redmen.

Quarterback Jarrod Casey got the scoring spree going with a 25-yard gallop.

After a fumble recovery, Guy came back with a 36-yard run two minutes later and it was now 32-26.

Rock Hill recovered another fumble and Pierson bolted 37 yards for a score and Rock Hill was up 40-26.

Casey ended the third quarter surge with a 21-yard touchdown pass to Andrew Stumbo with 2:29 on the clock.

Each team added a touchdown in the fourth quarter. Shane Bostic had a 7-yard TD run for Rock Hill to end the scoring.

Pierson had the best game of his career with 124 yards on 15 carries. Casey added 71 yards, Guy 66 and Corey Burke 41 as Rock Hill rolled up 370 yards rushing.

“That’s kind of what I was shooting for. I wanted to have everyone contributing,” Knipp said.

Casey was 5 of 7 passing for 59 yards to give the Redmen 429 total yards.

Morrow ran for 114 yards and threw for another 114.

Rock Hill146267=53

River Valley16606=28

First Quarter

RV — Michael Cordell 25 pass from Bryan Morrow (Ryan Henry pass from Morrow) 9:17

RV — Bryan Morrow 8 run (Jason Jones pass from Morrow) 5:13

RH — Wes Pierson 25 run (run failed) 4:05

RH — Wes Pierson 4 run (Shane Bostic run)

Second Quarter

RV — Bryan Morrow 20 run (run failed) 5:40

RH — Josh Guy 8 run (pass failed) 1:07

Third Quarter

RH — Jarrod Casey 25 run (run failed) 8:51

RH — Josh Guy 36 run (kick failed) 6:34

RH — Wes Pierson 37 run (J.C. Murnahan kick) 6:10

RH — Andrew Stumbo 21 pass from Jarrod Casey (J.C. Murnahan kick) 2:29

Fourth Quarter

RV — Bryan Morrow 5 run (run failed) 4:29

RH — Shane Bostic 7 run (J.C. Murnahan kick) 2:53

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RHRV

First Downs 1217

Rushes-yards 46-37043-195

Passing yards59 114

Total yards429309

Comp-att-int 5-7-0 9-16-0

Fumbles-lost 2-22-2

Penalties-yards 7-90 7-40.5

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Individual Statistics

RUSHING-Rock Hill: Josh Guy

8-66,

Jarrod Casey

8-71,

Corey Burke

8-41,

Wes Pierson

15-124,

Shane Bostic

3-24,

Zach Nelson

3-62,

J.C. Murnahan 1-6. River Valley: Ryan Henry

4-29,

Jordan Deel

9-28,

Michael Cordell

3-9,

Bryan Morrow

15-114,

Cody McAvena

10-55,

Tyler Smith

2-10.

PASSING-Rock Hill: Jarrod Casey

5-7-0

59. River Valley: Bryan Morrow

9-15-0

114, Clayton Curnutte

0-1-0

0.

RECEIVING-Rock Hill: J.C.Murnahan

2-16,

Corey Burke

2-22

Andrew Stumbo

1-21. River Valley: Michael Cordell

3-52,

Jason Jones

5-51,

Jordan Deel

1-11.