L-N Raider Football Team has 58-22 victory over Blue Hill

Conventional football wisdom tells us that most football teams improve the most between the first and second games of any season.

Last Friday's game against Blue Hill seemed to give evidence to that theory. The L-N Raiders scored two TD's every quarter to roll to a 58-22 victory over Blue Hill on the Bob Cat's home field.

The ingredients for the victory are many, but in general both the offense (more later) and the defense were as strong as any could be.

The defense held Blue Hill to only four yards of offensive production in the first period. This reporter tried to report individual effort on defense, but so often, each tackle was composed of many Raiders helping each other. By the time the clock ticked down to 3:43 in the second period, Blue Hill managed only 21 yards of total offense and L-N led 26-0.

The defense held Blue Hill to a total of 164 yards of offense. The Raider defense racked up 10 tackles for a loss with Ace Wulf being responsible for four of them. Unassisted tackles were almost as numerous as assisted tackle. Blue Hill completed only 2 of 8 passes due to the defensive pressure put on the B. H. quarterback.

The offense . . . well it more than doubled what it earned a week ago. That's not bad at all. In addition, Coach Blevins had more players engaged in the offense and the yardage production shows that. Wyatt Frey did well producing 175 yards rushing and completing 12 of 13 passes for 150 yards. Jack Williams had 94 yards rushing and three pass receptions for 36 yds. Jace Hoelting had four pass receptions for 39 yds.

Score by quarter:

L-N 12 14 16 16 - 58

Blue Hill 0 8 8 6 - 22

The best way to record the game is to record the TD parade.

TD No. 1: 'Gosh, I'm sorry!' may have been Wyatt Frey's contrition after bowling over the official in the end zone on his first TD of the evening. B. H. kicked off to the Raiders who took 10 plays to score. Two passes highlighted the drive, one to Ace Wulf and one to Jace Hoelting. The official was not hurt. Score: 6-0

TD No. 2: After the B. H. punt, the Raiders took six plays to score on a two yd. dash by Frey. Big plays in this drive were a 21 yd. run by Aiden Zikmund, a 28 yd. run by Jack Williams and of course the TD run by Wyatt Frey. 12-0.

TD No. 3: L-N gave up a fumbled ball, but the defense held BH and L-N took over the ball on their own 29 yd. line. A Frey to Caden Culbertson 26 yd. pass and a 21 yd. run by Williams set up one of the plays of the night. Frey scored on a 6 yd. run that was made possible by a tremendous block by team mate Williams. 18-0.

TD No. 4: Following another B. H. punt, time was running short in the 2nd quarter. L-N took five plays to move the ball 74 yds. to score. The TD came on a 46 yd. Frey to Aiden Zikmund pass. The first PAT of the game came with a Williams run. Score 26-0. B H used the remaining time to score and did so just seconds before the clock singled half time: Score 26-8.

TD No. 5: Confusion came early in the third period with an inadvertent whistle by an official. However, B H soon punted and L-N had the ball on their own 37 yd. line. A two play scoring drive saw a 28 yd. pass from Frey to Williams and a 15 yd. run by Frey to score. Frey also ran the PAT. Score: 34-8.

TD No. 6: L-N suffered their second fumble loss giving B H the ball on the Raider 20 yd. line. B H moved the ball to the 11 yd. line and looked as if they might score when an unknown Raider defender knocked down the B H pass in the end zone. Raider runs of 24 yds. by Frey and 27 by Williams contributed to a 69 yd. scoring drive that saw Williams dive over the goal line for six more points. A Frey to Cody Brockman pass scored the PAT. Score: 42-8.

TD No. 7: On the following kick off, B H returned the kick for their second TD of the game. Score: 42-16. The fourth quarter started after the kick off and L-N took five plays to move the ball 53 yds. with most of it coming on the 46 yd. TD run of Wyatt Frey. Ace Wulf ran the PAT. Score: 50-16.

TD No. 8: B H ran four plays and punted. The Raiders took one play, gave the ball to Ace Wulf and watched him race 61 yds. to the end zone to score. Cooper Heikkinen ran the PAT. Score: 58-16. B H put together a scoring drive that put eight points on the scoreboard with just seconds left in the ball game. 58-22.

Game statistics:

Offense: L-N total offense: 518; Blue Hill total: 164.

Rushing: Frey 175 yds. on 16 carries; Williams 94 yds. on 10 carries, Zikmund 32 yds. on three carries, Wulf 64 yds. on two carries, Heikkinen 3 yds. on one carry.

Passing: Frey: 150 yds. on 12 of 13 passes.

Receiving: Hoelting 39 yds. on four receptions, Culbertson 26 yds. on one catch, Zikmund 44 yds. on two receptions, Williams 36 yds. on yhree receptions, Brockman 5 yds. on two receptions.

Defense: tackles: assisted, unassisted.

Caden Culbertson 3-0 and one for a loss; Aiden Zikmund 3-1 and one for a loss; Wyatt Frey 2-4 and one for a loss; Ace Wulf 2-3 and four for losses; Jace Hoelting 3-1; Riley Cannaday 2-4 and two for losses; Colton Menke 1-1; Jack Williams 5-2; Grayhm Beck 3-1; Nathan Pofahl 2-0; Brandt McLaughlin 2-2 and one for a loss; Caleb Griffis 0-1; Cooper Heikkinen 5-1; Jasper Elledge 1, Kole Thompson 1-0; Gus Harrison 2-0; Monty Hajny 1-0.

The Raiders will have their first home game of the season this Friday, when Wilcox-Hildreth come to play. The game will be on the home field in Lawrence and starts at 7 p.m. Wilcox-Hildreth has a record of 1-1 having lost their opening game by one point.

Come one, come all.