(Photos by Daniel Campbell/Beaver County)

Week one in high school football on Beaver County Radio featured a close matchup between the Ambridge Bridgers and the Freedom Bulldogs at Ambridge High School.

The first half, Friday evening was a hard fought battle for both teams. Ambridge nor Freedom were able to put any points on the board before halftime. In the second half Ambridge was the first to strike, with a rushing touchdown giving the Bridgers a 7-0 lead. Later in the half Ambridge jumped out to a 14-0 advantage. The Freedom Bulldogs refusing to fold, scored a late touchdown cutting the lead to 7. Freedom would also catch a break after Ambridge turned the ball over giving the Bulldogs good field position. However, Freedom was not able to capitalize on the mistake and dropped their week one game against Ambridge by a score of 14-7. Freedom will start getting ready for their upcoming game with Beaver. While Ambridge will travel to Neshannock next Friday.

Here’s photos from the action at Moe Rubenstein Stadium:

On an overcast chilly June afternoon at Slippery Rock University ‘s Jack Critchfield Park, in front of a full house . The Chucks  in their red and white and Riverside in their black with green lettering  uniforms with the  wind blowing from left to right as Mike Azadian and Bruce Frey were set to call the game here on Beaver County Radio all anybody knew was that this was probably going to be a good game. And that it was with the Punxsutawney Chucks getting their first runner on with an E-6 recorded then the next pitch was hit into shallow right field and then the Chucks hit a ball deep into right field to put runners at second and third then the next batter Carter Savage belted the ball into center Field and they had runners on the corners with one out, the next batter struck out and the next  walked  to load the bases,  then Zeik Barnet comes up and hits a ball into center field that brought 2 more runs in, that was all for Ronnie Harper as coach Dan Oliastro came out to mound and called for his pitching ace Christian Lucarelli Who was already walking out from the bull pen. Lucarelli was able to stop the rally and to the relief of all the Riverside faithful the inning was over. But the Panthers bats were quiet in the first inning and in the next few innings as the next inning Dinger the Chucks lead off hitter hit a dinger that bounced over the fence for a book rule double but the panthers pitching held off the attack and no runs were scored, But the panthers still have not advanced a runner past second base and the bats were still pretty quiet, in the top of the third Christian Lucarelli retired the side with just 8 pitches and you would have to think that things were about to change with the Chucks getting 3 runs on 4 hits so far and the Panthers 0 runs on 3 hits. In the 5th inning Evan Burry makes a great catch on a very hard hit ground ball into the hole and a great throw and catch by Mitch Garvin at first to get the out, and Lucarelli strikes their #4 batter out and gets the next batter out to go to the bottom of the fifth, Could anybody get on for the Panthers and Drake Fox comes up and hits one at the shortstop and he bobbles the ball and the Panthers have the lead off batter on with nobody out(could it get better) yes it could then Darren McDade gets a hit to put runners on the corners and the Riverside fans came to life you could here the excitement ringing through the air as for the first time in this game they had something to cheer about. With bases loaded Sean Hayes lines into the outfield to bring in 2 runs with runners on first and second Riversides Evan Burry with 2 strikes gets a clutch hit to bring in the tying run as the crowd goes wild. In the top of the 6th the Chucks had 2 runners on and the Panthers Christian Lucarelli went into the stretch and paused to look around and noticed the runners leaning stepped off looked at second and tossed it to first to pick off the runner and end the inning. In the bottom of the 6th Mitch Garvin puts down a nice bunt to get runners to second and third and Darren McDade hits a 2 run double Sam Barber hits a triple and Sean Hayes had 2 runs batted in before it was all over the Panthers had a 8 to 3 lead going into the top of the 7th inning.  the Chucks managed a couple of runs but with 2 outs and the tying run on deck they hit a hard shot down the first base line and as Mike Azadian who was on the call said as Mitch Garvin jumped up and caught the ball that’s was probably the highest he’s ever jumped, it was a great game and a great win for the Riverside Panthers and it was Broadcast right here on 99.3 FM 95.7 FM 1230WBVP/1460WMBA   and around the world on Beaver County Radio .com