The Warriors spirited comeback fell short Saturday as they lost their first home game of the season to the Riverside Tigers, 45-42.

“This a tough loss, it hurts,” said quarterback Cole Klayman.. “You comeback, make a late effort and come up a little short.”

Riverside scored the game’s first 10 points and the Warriors answered with back-to-back field goals, then Riverside quarterback Vic Viramontes exploded with with a 71-yard touchdown run.

“He’s tough to bring down, everyone knows he’s going to run with the ball,” said EC head coach Gifford Lindheim. “We’re not the first ones to have trouble bringing him down, he’s a good football player.”

The Warriors scored a touchdown late in the second quarter, a two-yard run by running back Okalani Taufahema-Langi but the Tigers still led 17-13 at halftime.

The second half was a wild one with both teams scoring a combined 57 points.

The Tigers’ wide receiver Tyrone Marshall scored two touchdowns in the third quarter with second being a 98-yard kickoff return. Not to be outdone the Warriors’ running back Torrance Brumfield, who answered with a 87-yard kickoff return to the house.

“It was just like we practiced hit the hole and go, it just opened up,” said Brumfield.

The two teams went back-and-forth exchanging touchdowns including back to touchdowns by wide receiver Trevon Clark, he scored on receptions of 10 and 44 yards.

“My mindset coming into this game was knock this team off and take their crown, we were capable of doing it, we just picked it up late,” said Clark.

In the fourth quarter, EC lost two of it’s starting offensive lineman due to be ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct, it’s unknown at this time if they miss the next game due to the ejections.

The players were sophomore offensive lineman KingJames Taylor and freshman offensive lineman Jacob Pugh-Scruggs were ejected for, “level three decorum violation.”

Both Taylor and Pugh-Scruggs were also suspended two games for the incidents.

“King(James) responded in retalition and threw a punch, although he didn’t throw the first punch the rules are pretty clear,” Lindheim said.

Despite the suspension, Taylor plans to be in the stands for the remaining games.

“It’s not about me, it’s about the team. I messed up for the team,” Taylor said.

“We’ll see what that looks like, we will look at the rules and figure out what’s going to happen with them,” said Lindheim.

The final score of the game came when Klayman rumbled 46 yards making the score 45-42. The Tigers recovered the onside kick attempt and ran out the clock to clinch the victory.