The Racine Raiders defense still hasn’t been scored upon after the Raiders beat the St. Paul Pioneers 34-0 in Gridiron Developmental Football League (GDFL) action Saturday night at Historic Horlick Athletic Field. Neither team’s offense could muster much offense until the final drive of the first half.
On the Raiders final drive of the first half, they were faced with a third-and-ten at their own 41-yard line. Quarterback Andre Locke was able to buy some extra time and running back Howard Triplett found a gap in the defense and settled in. Locke saw him and flipped the ball to Triplett who turned it into a 44-yard gain and set the Raiders up at the St. Paul 15 yard line.
Going into a stiff breeze, the Raiders passed on a possible 34-yard field goals and went for it on fourth-and-seven from the Pioneers 12-yard line. Locke hit Will Norwood with a bullet on a slant play, splitting two defenders at the goal line for the first score of the game. The Alex Gonzalez extra-point was good and Racine would take a 7-0 lead into the half.
The Raiders had won the coin toss before the game and deferred and received the opening kickoff of the second half. The drive started started with the Raiders taking a timeout before running a play. The drive would end 12 plays later with a Locke 10-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Payne to give Racine a 14-0 lead with 8:41 to play in the quarter.
After holding St. Paul on their ensuing drive, the Raiders would get the ball at the Pioneers 22-yard line. With Mitch Farr at quarterback, the Raiders were able to capitalize on a 16-yard touchdown pass to Dan Kant-Hull. Farr couldn’t handle a low snap on the play and Kant-Hull snuck out while Farr corralled the ball. Farr saw Kant-Hull wide open and tossed it to him for the 21-0 lead with 5:35 to play in the third quarter.
The defense would hold the Pioneers to a three-and-out and the Raiders would add a field goal by Gonzalez. The 41-yard field goal was the longest of Gonzalez’s career and was set up by a 24-yard pass play from Farr to Joe Garcia on third-and-39 at the Raiders own 43-yard line. The Raiders led 24-0 with 2:33 to play in the quarter.
After a 32-yard field goal by Gonzalez to make the score 27-0 with 10:45 to play in the game, the Raiders would add their final touchdown. Sawyer Schick connected with Terrence Fitch on a 52-yard touchdown pass. It was the first touchdown pass of Schick’s rookie campaign with Racine.
The Raiders defense tormented St. Paul quarterback Matt Thayer all game, sacking him eight times in the game. Thayer threw three interceptions in the game due to the pressure applied by the Raiders defense. St. Paul managed just six first downs and had 112 yards of offense on 54 plays including 24 rushes for minus-19 yards. The Raiders defense forced five total turnovers.
The Raiders running game was held in check as they averaged just two yards per carry in the game. The passing attacked looked much better than two weeks ago as three quarterbacks combined to go 16-for-24 with 253 yards and four touchdowns. Rookie Jaylon Edmonson led the Raiders with 36 yards on the ground and averaged six yards per carry. Nine different receivers caught a pass and four different receivers had touchdown catches.
The Raiders improved to 3-0 in GDFL play and will now go on the road for the next two weeks, traveling to Cincinnati on June 10 to play the Cin City Buccaneers and to Indianapolis on June 17 to face the Indy Bison (Blue). Both games start at 6 pm CT.
