It was a slow start for the Racine Raiders offense on Saturday night while the defense showed they might even be more dominant than a year ago. The Raiders beat the Midwest (IL) Renegades, 32-6, at Historic Horlick Athletic Field in Racine.

The Raiders were able to find the endzone for the first time on a drive following a J.D. Hardy interception midway through the first quarter that put the Raiders at the Renegades 30-yard line. On the third play of the drive, quarterback Andre Locke, Jr., hit wide receiver Joe Garcia III for a 28-yard touchdown with 6:02 to play. It gave Racine a 6-0 lead.

The Raiders held the Renegades and got the ball right back. Racine would get flagged for holding negating a nice connection from Locke to Garcia on the first play. On the second play, Locke had a miscommunication with running back Howard Triplett on a hand-off. Locke stepped forward towards the line, looking for an escape route, when he saw Garcia wide open deep down the field. Locke stepped back and heaved the ball to Garcia who went the distance. The Brady Wodack extra point was good and Racine led 13-0 with 2:29 to play in the first quarter.

Both teams moved the ball well between the 30-yard lines in the second quarter but couldn’t capitalize. The Renegades had the ball deep in Raiders territory with just seconds to play. Quarterback Drew Fendrich fired across the middle of the field and into the arms of Raiders safety Jordan Danowski at the five-yard line. Danowski cut to the Raiders sideline and raced down the field, breaking a couple of ankle tackles, and going the distance as time expired in the half with the Raiders leading 19-0.

Again in the third quarter, both teams managed to move the football but nobody could capitalize until Locke used his legs to extend a play and fired a bullet into the endzone that was caught by wide receiver Bibby Davis for a 21-yard touchdown, giving Racine a 25-0 lead with 4:18 to play in the third quarter.

The Renegades would get on the scoreboard following an interception thrown by Raiders backup quarterback Sawyer Schick. Renegades backup quarterback E.J. Baez connected with wide receiver C.J. Davis for a four-yard touchdown with 9:09 to play.

The Raiders final score came with 4:34 to play as Schick hit Lavantis Lewis on a fade route in the back corner of the endzone to extend the Raiders lead to 32-6 after the Wodack extra point.

Locke was 12-24 in the game for 212 yards. Garcia accounted for 158 of those yards on four catches. Triplett led the Raiders with 46 rushing yards. Danowski recorded 10 tackles and had two interceptions to pace the defense.

The Raiders will host the Michigan Bills next week at Historic Horlick Athletic Field with a 6 pm CT kickoff. The Bills are 4-1 on the season and are the third-ranked team in The Players Football Association. The first 500 fans through the gate will receive a free schedule magnet courtesy of the Ed Pestka Team with Shorewest Realtors.