Hendersonville put its faith in an athlete named Believe on Friday night.
And he led the Commandos to a monumental 23-20 upset of sixth-ranked Riverdale that stunned the Warrior crowd at Tomahawk Stadium.
Hendersonville senior Believe Kabasu scored on a 4-yard run with 22 seconds remaining to defeat the Warriors, who have now lost two straight. Anthony Tate ended the scoring by fighting off several defenders for the two-point conversion.
"We believe in him now with those scores," Hendersonville sophomore quarterback Jeremias Elston said.
Riverdale had three plays to attempt to answer the score. But Dillon Woodruff's deep throw at the end of the game was picked off by Colt Cupit.
Riverdale (4-2) had an opportunity in the final three minutes to put the game away when the Warriors went for it on fourth-and-1 from the Hendersonville 40. Woodruff kept the ball on a keeper and dived forward. He appeared to make the first down initially. But he was ruled to come up about a chain length short.
"We did what we could," Woodruff said. "It just didn't fall in our favor."
That gave the Commandos (4-2) an opportunity to win.
Hendersonville methodically drove the ball on its final possession, and Jarques Wordlaw's run got the ball to the Riverdale 18 with 1:08 left. The Commandos had the ball on the Riverdale 9 with 31 seconds left and caught a break on a pass interference that moved the ball inside the five. Kabasu scored on the next play.
It was the Commandos' lone lead of the night.
"That's a great win for us," Hendersonville coach Bruce Hatfield said. "We gave up some big plays that we shouldn't have, and that's been what we've done all year. But to our players credit and coaches credit, we held on."
Hendersonville manhandled the Warriors upfront throughout much of the night.
"Not looking at the film, but we got whipped in a lot of places," Riverdale coach Ron Aydelott said.
