The Dover/Caesar Rodney football game is the highlight of the high school fall sports schedule every year, but this past weekend’s game was just a bit more important than in years past.

    For the Riders (9-1), a win would have secured them one of the top seeds in the state tournament; while the Senators (6-4) were desperately seeking the victory that would take them into the postseason.

    As it turned out, the better team won.

    CR was able to take down their cross-town rivals, 33-20, in an electrifying finale to the football regular season.

    “What a game, these two teams playing in a nice rivalry game, a great-spirited contest with big plays made by both teams at times,” Riders head coach Mike Schoenwolf said. “It was just a back and forth game.”

    With the win, CR was able to secure the No. 1 seed in the state tournament and earn a BYE week awaiting the winners of the first weekend of the tournament’s games to see who its opponent will be.

    “Getting the No. 1 seed is a matter of accumulating a number of points,” Schoenwolf said. “It speaks to the strength of schedule we had.”

    For Dover, the loss meant the end of its season.

    The Sens were barely edged out of the tournament by Newark,  the No. 6 and final seed. Dover head coach Carlton Brown said seeing how his team played for him makes the season ending that much tougher.

    “It’s rough to see a bunch of guys that give their all go out like this,” Brown said. “It was a pleasure coaching them.”

The game

    The Riders drew first blood on a rushing touchdown from junior Daquan Harris, but the Sens answered right back on the next drive with a 19-yard touchdown reception by Bryan Denegal from quarterback Stevie Harris to tie the score, 6-6, after both kickers failed to convert on their extra point attempts.

    Caesar Rodney scored one more time before the end of the half on a 48-yard touchdown run by senior running back Duron Harmon, putting them up 13-6 at the end of the half.

    It seemed the Riders were going to run away with the game, as they have done many times this year after quarterback John Sclesky added another score on a rushing touchdown in the third quarter to give CR a commanding 20-6 lead with only one quarter to play.

    But the tide seemed ready to turn after Dover’s Eric Sumlin grabbed an 11-yard pass from Harris for another score. The Sens then inched even closer, tying the score 20-20 on a Terrance Jones rushing touchdown.

    Despite throwing for two touchdowns, quarterback Harris said he was unhappy with his performance, stating that he was struggling to find room to make plays all game.

    “Everybody thought it was going to be a blowout game, that we weren’t even going to score,” he said. “But we came out and played hard. I was getting frustrated though because I wanted it so bad.”

    Unfortunately for the Sens, the Jones score would be the last bit of good news they would get this season as CR totally shifted good fortune back to their side on a 60-yard connection between Sclesky and receiver Jordan Henry, which led to an eight-yard touchdown pass to Wendell Flamer.

    The 60-yard pass, Brown said, was the turning point that his team could not recover from.

    “We gave them all we had,” he said. “We had them on their heels, then had a coverage breakdown, and what can you say? Those are the kind of things that hurt you. All you need is one play, and they made that play.”

    “That was a big momentum swing,” Sclesky said. “They were doing different things on defense, and luckily coach picked up on that and we just found different ways to get to the end zone.”

    Harmon added another score to make it 33-20, and that’s how it ended.

Riders ready for tournament

    Caesar Rodney will get its first week off this season as it played well enough to earn the tournament’s No. 1 seed and a free pass through the first round.

    Schoenwolf said there’s two ways to look at the week off: one way is that it’s a time to allow the team to refresh, but the other is that it gets them out of routine.

    “The week off isn’t necessarily a week off, it’s a week of preparation,” he said.

    The coach added that getting the win against Dover was a big thing to have the Riders enter the tournament with a full head of steam.

    “It’s always nice to end the season with a win, and it’s very nice to end the season with a win against Dover,” Schoenwolf said. “Looking forward to the tournament, you always want to step in on a high note, and we have that.”

Sens face disappointing closure

    Dover was so close to making the state tournament that its bid against Newark came down to the second tiebreaker.

    It lost out, and subsequently its season came to an end.

    Brown said, however, that with a team that started six sophomores this season he was impressed with how well the Sens fared, and is looking forward to the future with this young bunch.

    “It’s very promising,” he said. “That’s what I told the young guys, that we just have to work that much harder in the off-season. We have to work, come together and get that much better.

    “I’m very proud though. I’m very happy with things and we’re only going to get better.”

Email Brian Citino at brian.citino@doverpost.com