There was one running back that made history and turned heads on Riverside‘s field tonight, and that running back was not Harlem Berry.
In a game where the #1 running back in the country was on the other side of the field, Dedric Lastie made a huge statement by having one of the best individual games by any player in the state of Louisiana this season, as Lastie’s Riverside Rebels defeated the St. Martin’s Episcopal Saints 76-37.
That’s right. 76 points. Lastie was incredible in an individual effort, but that number has some special meaning behind it for Riverside as a team. The Rebels had 11 possessions in this game. In those 11 possessions, they scored 11 TDs. Nothing could stop them. They never punted. They never had a turnover, not even on downs. They never even had a drive end because they ran out of time. They scored a touchdown literally every single time the offense touched the ball. They played a perfect game. Riverside could name the score in this game.
When you have one team that can name the score they put up, there is no central narrative or story to tell in this game. There were just tons of highlights, more than anyone knows what to do with.
Of course, much of this game’s discussion begins and ends with the star of the show, Dedric Lastie. He had 540 rushing yards and 8 rushing touchdowns, and he added a receiving touchdown to the performance. That gave him a total of 9 touchdowns, which goes down as one of the greatest single game performances the state of Louisiana has ever seen. Lastie was one of the smallest players on the field, but on that night, his presence was undeniably enormous.
As unbelievable as those numbers are, somehow, they don’t do his performance justice. He had 500 of the yards and 8 of the TDs in just the first 3 quarters, and only had a couple of carries in the 4th quarter, which had a running clock. On top of that, he had a TD called back in the 2nd quarter that turned into a passing TD from Brock Bourgeois to Nehemiah Philip instead. It’s totally reasonable to see a world where Lastie had 11 or 12 TDs in the bag here if the circumstances were only slightly different.
The numbers also don’t do justice to the feeling on the field. In a game where all the buzz all week was about an unstoppable force on the other side, Lastie was the true unstoppable force. He was the beating heart of this team, and on this day, that heart never stopped. He was bouncing off tackles from people twice his size, changing direction too quickly for people to keep up, and accelerating to his top speed to finish off so many of these runs. It felt like the only guy that could ever catch and tackle him was the opposing running back who was moonlighting as a safety at times during this game.
As great as Lastie was, it would be a disservice to forget about what #25 in white was able to do in this game as well. LSU commit and #1 RB in the class of 2025 Harlem Berry was as good as advertised. His speed was truly game-changing, and he exploded for a great game himself, even in a blowout defeat. Berry had over 300 yards rushing and 5 rushing TDs, a performance that would be the headline of any other game of the weekend. Unfortunately for Berry, it wasn’t even the most notable performance at his position in this game.
Lastie will get the headlines (and deservedly so), but this was a complete team victory for Riverside. Despite the great performance from Berry, Riverside’s defense was able to otherwise contain St. Martin’s Episcopal’s offense as a whole. On top of that, even though Lastie eventually took over the game on offense, there were plenty of playmakers that were able to share the load for Riverside early in the game and open up the opportunities for Lastie to dominate. Among others (including a great performance in the trenches), it was looking like a breakout game for freshman Kenric Johnson, who scored the game’s first TD and caught a nice pass in the first quarter. Of course, most of his production ended when Dedric Lastie’s play demanded his fixture as the focal point of the offense, but Johnson’s still a player to look out for in the future.
This is a huge win for Riverside, who opened district play in this game with a win over a potential playoff rival. They move to 3-2 on the season, and they will continue district play next week on the road at West St. John. It’s a tough loss for St. Martin’s Episcopal, who falls to 4-2 on the season, and will return home next week with a game against Crescent City Christian.
Check out interviews for Dedric Lastie and Coach Lee Roussel here!
