At Friday’s game against Kennedale the Raider’s defense accomplished something that has only taken place a handful of times in the history of sports. The defense intercepted Kennedale’s Alvarez twice on the night catching two more passes than the Kennedale receivers did. After giving up over 500 yards of offense to Abilene Cooper the Raider’s defense held the Wildcat’s explosive offense to just a mere 185 yards of offense, and the Raider offense managed to muster up enough points to secure a 13-10 victory.
“The Defense did really good and this gives us confidence heading into next Friday’s game,” senior Tyler Mauri said.
Kennedale’s first drive was halted by a Mason Stone interception, but the Raiders would have to give the ball back, and the Wildcat’s next drive would not falter as they drove the ball down the field with Bo Burgess taking the ball in from 7 yards out to score Kennedale’s first and only touchdown of the game. The Raiders would respond with a scoring drive of their own, they drove 82 yards in 14 plays with Clark Daugherty catching a 32-yard pass from Malcolm Carter to keep the drive alive eventually leading to Deron Royster’s 1-yard plunge for a Raider touchdown to tie up the game 7-7.
The Raider’s defense would respond again late in the first half as the defense kept the Wildcats out of the end zone holding them to a 19-yard field goal for a 10-7 Kennedale lead at halftime.
“We could’ve beat them by more, but we had too many mistakes on offense,” Mauri said.
The second half was a battle of defenses and the Raiders proved to be the victor. The Wildcats who rang up over 400 yards on the ground against the Denison Yellowjackets last week, were held to 52 yards in the second half by the Raider defense. As for the offense, they managed to drive the ball down into field goal range and Connor Nutt delivered hitting two field goals from 38 and 32 yards to preserve the Raider victory.