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Instant NorCal Football Classic: Riordan hangs on to knock off Pittsburg

In game that features close to 1,000 yards, Adonyae Brown rushes for 230 yards and three touchdowns leading Crusaders to breathtaking win over relentless Pirates
Mitch Stephens|
Riordan quarterback and Vanderbilt commit Mike Mitchell threw three touchdown passes helping the Crusaders to a wild 42-35 win over Pittsburg in San Francisco on Sept. 13, 2025. He's show here in action from 2024 in a game at Valley Christian.
Riordan quarterback and Vanderbilt commit Mike Mitchell threw three touchdown passes helping the Crusaders to a wild 42-35 win over Pittsburg in San Francisco on Sept. 13, 2025. He's show here in action from 2024 in a game at Valley Christian. | Photo by Scott Dinn

Riordan High School football coach Adhir Ravipati said all off-season that the 2025 Crusaders — a squad loaded with Division 1 college talent and experience — would need to rely on attention to the little things: Execution. Penalties. Details at the end of quarters and games.

Sophomore cornerback Israel Lawson waited for the very last play of the game Saturday to rely on his instincts to pull off the play of the highlight-reel contest.

In a game Saturday filled with offensive fireworks, Lawson made the game-saving play, knocking the ball out of the hands of 6-foot-4 Arizona-bound receiver on a 50-50 ball for the game's final play securing a wild 42-35 win over a gallant and visiting Pittsburg squad.

It was the second straight day two California ranked teams battled to the bitter end in back-and-forth offensive tackles. On Friday, Corona Centennial shocked national No. 1 Mater Dei 43-36 — identical margins in high school affairs.

Riordan came into this game ranked No. 16 and Pittsburg No. 20.

The Pirates (2-1) fought back from deficits of 21-0 in the first half and 42-21 in the fourth quarter to close within a touchdown on two scores from fleet sophomore Kenneth Ward — and 80-yard kickoff return and 22-yard touchdown pass from yet another sophomore, backup quarterback JaVale Ward.

The latter came with 2:57 to go to close to 42-35, but after Riordan recovered Pittsburg's onside kick attempt, the game essentially looked over.

Not so.

The Pirates held and a very short punt gave them the ball at the 35 with less than two minutes left and no timeouts. Jones led them to two first downs, but was sacked on first down. On a 4th-and10 play from the Riordan 41 and 30 seconds left, he found Mosley for 16 yards, setting up the final sequence.

Mosley was a monster all afternoon with 10 catches for 257 yards and two touchdowns.

With 1.4 seconds left from the Riordan 23, Jones smartly went to the long and lphysical receiver, who had been making plays all game. Lawson, who stands five inches shorter at 5-11, went up right at the goal line and knocked it away setting off a giant purple and gold celebration.

The Crusaders, who lost to Pittsburg last season 56-42 and who dropped three games by a touchdown or less, had survived in a game it looked like their would run away with. Literally.

That's because Brown (26 carries, 230 yards according to @KasselMedia) took a handoff on the second play and scampered 78 yards for a score. The rugged 6-foot1, 215-pound junior set the tone foe the entire game.

Vanderbilt-bound quarterback Mike Mitchell (14 of 26, 227 yards) hit on Riordan's next big play, a 92-yard slant to Judge Nash, who ran away from Pittsburg's fleet secondary to make it 14-0 with 57.7 seconds left in the first quarter. Nash had three catches for 129 yards.

Nash, a Harvard commit, and Mitchell hooked up again on a 34-yard touchdown, making it 21-0 early in the second and this one looked like a possible rout.

But the Pirates, who won the CIF State Northern California Division 1-A championship last year, showed no quit. And Mosley was at the forefront.

His one-handed 4-yard TD grab from Carlos Torres (13 of 23, 250 yards) closed the gap to 21-7 and after Riordan's 17-play ensuing drive was stopped without a score, Mosley took a short pass and rambled 68 yards to set up a 1-yard TD run by Siotane Finau, to make it 21-14 with 1:21 left in the half.

That was plenty of time for the Crusaders to motor right down field as Mitchell found Kyle Wlech with a 31-yard TD bomb to make it 28-14 at the break. Welch finished with 4 catches for 48 yards.

The Pirates immediately closed to 28-21 midway through the third when Mosley took a short swing from Torres and sprinted 49 yards for a touchdown.

But Riordan immediately answer with Brown capping a long drive with a 2-yard touchdown, running right over a would-be tackler, making it 35-21 with 2:48 left in the third.

The Crusaders' defense came through with a pair of interceptions on Pittsburg's next two drives by Skylar Taitai and Tyrone Jones III. That set up a 56-yard rumble by Brown, who then cashed it in with his third TD, again trucking a defensive lineman into the end zone, making it 42-21 with 8:48 left.

Once again, the Pirates looked cooked. Once again, they responded.

Riordan tried to kick away from Ward, the San Francisco Chroncile's 2024 Freshman of the Year, but instead the speedy sophomore grabbed the ball at the 20, avoided a hard-charging tackle at the 30, scooted outside and was gone. This was a game again, 42-28 with 4:02 to go.

Pittsburg looked cooked again on its next possession, but on 3rd-and-20 from its own 17, a screen from Jones (10 of 14, 156 yards) to Mosley went for 68 yards. That immediately set up Jones perfect strike to Ward for their 22-yard TD connection and remarkably with 2:57 to go this was a one-score game.

Last year's game between the two teams in Pittsburg featured nearly 1,000 yards. This one had 963, 484 for Pittsburg and 479 by the Crusaders.

Though disappointed with the final score, Pittsburg coach Charlie Ramirez was pleased with his team's second-half effort.

"We're still trying to figure outselves out," he said. "Nothing to hang your head about losing to a team like that by one score. (Ravapati) does a great job. I've been pleased with the fact is our second halves have been better than our first in all three games."

(All reporting off Riordan's live stream here - watch on replay - and reports from Ethan Kassel, Christian Babock and Mark Tennis, all live at game).

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Mitch Stephens
MITCH STEPHENS

Mitch Stephens is a senior editor at SBLive Sports for California, a state he's covered high school sports since 1984. He won multiple CNPA and CPSWA writing awards with the Contra Costa Times, San Francisco Chronicle and MaxPreps.com before joining the SBLive staff in 2022. He's covered the beat nationally since 2007, profiling such athletes as Derrick Henry, Paige Bueckers, Patrick Mahomes, Sabrina Ionescu, Jayson Tatum, Chiney Ogwumike, Jeremy Lin and Najee Harris as preps. You can reach him at mitch@scorebooklive.com.

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