The Racine Raiders were able to overcome two field changes after their bus left for Indianapolis and a time change to shut out the Marion County Crusaders, 28-0, Saturday evening. It all started with a 9:30 am private message to the Raiders Facebook page with a person indicating that the team wouldn’t be playing at Howard Longshore Stadium at Arsenal Tech High School. The team bus and individual players and staff, along with fans were already on their way to Indianapolis or had gone down Friday night. A location wasn’t known until the bus hit the Indiana border.
“A couple of fans that came down Friday, went to the original field on Friday evening and ended up talking to someone loosely affiliated with the school that told them the game wasn’t being played there,” said Raiders broadcaster Don Wadewitz. “They talked to the athletic director that confirmed the news and the person they were with reached out to the Raiders on Saturday morning after seeing our post on Facebook about the game.”
That led to hours of phone calls and texts between MidStates Football League (MSFL) and team officials, finally ending with a location to play the game. The field was still an artificial turf field though it didn’t have locker rooms, a press box, lights, or any electricity available. Having no electricity led to an issue with how to provide the live stream for fans.
“Raiders president Matt Nelson calls me as I hit the Indiana border and says, ‘I’ve got good news and bad news,'” said Wadewitz. “Well, we had a game, but didn’t have power so we instantly went into problem-solving mode.”
Nelson, Sr., Matt Nelson, Jr., and Wadewitz started talking through options and came up with a couple possible ideas.
“Player Matt asked me how much power we pull for our broadcast so I had Cody (Ortner) start Googling for that information while Jeremy (Wasurick) was keeping track of the numbers,” said Wadewitz. “We ended up being able to get Matt (Jr.) the numbers and he was able to secure a generator to save the day.”
It brought back memories of the Sangamon Express game for former Raiders like Nelson, Sr. and Chris Pivovar, who posted about the game on the Raiders Facebook page.
“The field was like Graceland Park with houses to one side so Gary (Suhr) got a long extension cord and plugged into power from a house,” remembered Nelson, Sr.
Once the changes were out of the way, the Raiders players were able to focus and get down to business. The Raiders moved the ball on their opening possession but failed to convert a fourth down play inside the Crusaders 30-yard line and turned the ball over on downs. Neither team scored in the first quarter but the Raiders got on the board right away in the second quarter on a ten-yard touchdown pass from Mitch Farr to Brandon Smith giving Racine a 7-0 lead.
On the ensuing drive, the Crusaders fumbled the ball on a snap and Armani Goodwin recovered deep in Crusaders territory for Racine. Farr connected with Terrance Fitch on a 17-yard pass down to the Crusaders two-yard line and Howard Triplett finished the drive with a touchdown run to give Racine a 14-0 halftime lead.
Neither team did much in the third quarter. The Crusaders had a punt return touchdown called back on a personal foul. It was the second touchdown called back in the game for the Crusaders. The Crusaders would move the ball across midfield on the next drive but Deshawn Luckett’s pass was picked off by newcomer Damone Jones who returned it to the Crusaders 14 yard line. Triplett would bounce off a defender and spin off another one on his way to the endzone on the first offensive play, giving Racine a 21-0 lead with about five minutes left to play.
The Raiders would tack on another touchdown when Gordy Bittner, Jr. connected with Fitch on a 30-yard play inside the final two minutes. The Raiders defense would hold and the Raiders picked up their first win since October 2019 to move to 1-0 in MSFL play and 1-1 on the season. The Crusaders fell to 0-1 in the MSFL and 1-2 overall with the loss.
Deveron Davis picked up his 500th career tackle in the game and led the team with five tackles including 1-1/2 for loss. Nick Jones, in his first game with the team in 2021, had three tackles, all sacks. Jones had four tackles and a half a sack to go with his interception.
Offensively, Farr was 10-13 for 94 yards and a touchdown. Triplett had 17 carries for 91 yards and two touchdowns. Joe Garcia III again led Racine in receiving with 4 catches for 51 yards. Fitch had 2 for 47 and the touchdown and Smith had 2 for 21 and a touchdown.
The Raiders will be on the road again next Saturday as they travel to Illinois to play the Leyden Lions. A location for the game hasn’t been confirmed as of publishing time.
