TOM KREAGER - Staff Writer

MURFREESBORO — Keaton Anderson and the Riverdale defense weren’t about to let Franklin County score.

The Warriors had dominated the entire game and they weren’t going to slip up now.

Anderson ended the Rebels’ final scoring attempt by intercepting a Ryan Henn pass in the end zone to preserve a 45-0 victory in a Class 5A second-round playoff game.

“We had to make a stand for ourselves,” Anderson said. “They were getting close, but we had to stop them.”

The Warriors held Franklin County to just 27 yards on the ground and 83 total yards. Riverdale recovered four fumbles and had two interceptions.

“It’s all about getting everybody to the ball and trying to make tackles,” linebacker Jean Paul Gadie said. “We wanted to keep that zero up and send a message to the next team, next week. We want to tell them that we are for real and that this defense can keep them going.”

Riverdale (10-2) advances for a rematch with top-ranked Lincoln County (12-0). Lincoln County defeated Smyrna 29-22 last night, and handed the Warriors their first loss of the season with a 26-21 decision in Week 3.

Last season, Riverdale avenged a regular-season loss by shutting out the Falcons in the first round of the playoffs.

Riverdale held Franklin County without a first down until the second quarter and five first downs in the game.

“Awesome,” Riverdale Coach Gary Rankin said of his team’s defensive effort. “That was probably the best they’ve swarmed around all season. They had some pretty good runners, we thought. Their defense looked pretty quick. We just looked a lot quicker on defense and played pretty well on defense. We really did.”

Quarterback Dave Thomas gave Riverdale a 7-0 lead when he returned a punt 57 yards for a touchdown. However, at the end of the play Thomas took a blow to the chest, knocking the air out of him and forcing him to the sidelines.

But the Warriors’ offense didn’t have a letdown without their starting quarterback.

With Thomas on the sidelines, Terrance Savannah threw a 73-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Keaton Anderson to extend the lead to 14-0 with 6:20 left in the first half.

“I think that kind of surprised them,” Rankin said. “It surprised me a little bit. I’m sure it surprised them. It was just the right call. He’s our backup quarterback, but he still has to do those things. He threw a beautiful ball.”

Anderson pulled down the completion near midfield after beating his defender by two strides and ran the rest of the way untouched.

“We do that every day in practice,” Anderson said. “We know we can do that in the game. It was really unexpected. We just had to do what we had to do.”

Riverdale finished with 272 yards on 48 carries. Thomas, who returned to the game late in the second quarter, completed 2-of-7 passes for 29 yards. He attempted only four passes after returning to the game.