The Racine Raiders jumped out to a 13-0 first quarter lead over the Motor City Rams and would hold on to win, 27-19, Saturday night at Historic Horlick Athletic Field in front of close to 1,000 fans. The Raiders used a short field on all of their scoring drives while the Rams mostly scored off of Racine miscues.
The Raiders defense held Motor City to back-to-back three-and-outs giving Racine’s offense the football at the Motor City 48-yard line to begin their second drive of the game. The Motor City defense would stop the Raiders, forcing a 4th-and3 from the Motor City 41-yard line. Racine chose to go for it and Andre Locke hit a streaking Joe Garcia for the first score of the game. Alex Gonzalez failed to connect on the extra point attempt and Racine would settle for a 6-0 lead with 7:21 to play in the first quarter.
Racine’s defense would again hold Motor City to a three-and-out and the offense started with the football at the Motor City 37-yard line. On the second play of the drive, Locke was forced up the middle and took off running all the way to the end zone from 36 yards out. Gonzalez connected on the extra point and Racine jumped out to a 13-0 lead with 4:40 to play in the quarter.
Motor City went on an 12-play drive to try and answer the Racine scores. They got down to the Raiders four-yard line but a Future Thomas pass to Defarrel Davis was snuffed out by Aarion Ivy and Channing Schultz resulting in a turnover-on-downs. The Rams would get the ball back three plays later on a Mycial Allen interception that he returned to the Racine 35-yard line. Motor City was faced with another 4th-and-goal. This time, Thomas rolled to his left, feigned that he was going to run, and then fired a bullet to Defarrel Davis for the touchdown. Bret Thrushman added the extra point and Motor City pulled to within 13-7 with 8:38 to play in the first half.
The Rams would get a stop on the Raiders ensuing drive and would block the Brady Wodack punt. Derrick Newsom picked it up and raced to the endzone for the scoop-and-score. The Thrushman extra point attempt failed, leaving the game tied heading into halftime.
The Raiders regrouped at halftime and came out strong. Corey Dalton returned the opening kickoff of the second half 57 yards to the Motor City 35-yard line. Five plays later, Garcia made a tremendous diving catch of a Locke throw to the back corner of the endzone to extend the Racine lead to 20-13 following the Gonzalez point-after attempt. Motor City would run 14 plays on their next drive, getting as deep as the Racine six-yard line before they turned it over on downs.
Late in the third quarter, the Raiders defense backed Motor City up inside their 15-yard line. Following a Thrushman punt, the Raiders had the ball at the Motor City 44-yard line. Howard Triplett broke off a 24-yard run and two plays later, Locke hit Jordan Payne between two defenders in the endzone to extend the Racine lead to 27-13 with 14:22 to play in the game.
Motor City got a 54-yard return on the ensuing kickoff by Defarrel Davis, setting them up at the Racine 35-yard line. Six plays later, Armani Posey, in at quarterback for Thomas in the fourth quarter, connected with Dontae Clark for a 13-yard touchdown. Following an offsides penalty on Racine, Motor City went for the two-point conversion attempt but the pass fell incomplete. Racine led 27-19 with 11:18 to play in the game.
Racine would get inside Motor City territory on their next two drives before turning the ball over on downs. The Raiders defense was able to hold Motor City to just nine plays in their final two drives to secure the win for the Raiders, improving to 10-0 on the season, and looking to lay claim to the top seed in the Gridiron Developmental Football League (GDFL) while playing one of, if not, the toughest schedules in the country.
The Raiders travel to St. Paul to take on the Pioneers this Saturday for their final GDFL regular season game of the year. Kickoff is slated for 6 pm at Concordia University-St. Paul’s Sea Foam Stadium.
