Midget Week 2, Saturday August 18th

The Raiders Midget team went into Week 2 coming off a 34-22 victory in their season opener against Pembina Valley.  The Raiders were on the road in Transcona on Saturday, taking on the Nationals (0-1) in their home opener.  A series of mis-cues led to the Nationals taking over the ball inside the Raiders 10 yard line, with the defense coming a yard away from holding the Nationals to a 3 and out.  The Nationals would lead 7-0 until the Raiders QB Greg Plett (#4) would hook up deep with WR Patrick Bissonnette (#1) for the first TD of the game.  The Raiders went for 2 to try and take the lead but mishandled the snap.  The Nationals took a 7-6 lead into half-time.  In the 3rd quarter the Nationals took advantage of a mistake in coverage which led to their 2nd touchdown, and gave them a 14-6 lead in the 3rd.  The Raiders offense for the 2nd week in a row found themselves in a situation where they needed to find a response, and once again they responded.  Mid-way through the 3rd quarter Greg Plett once again found Patrick Bissonnette deep behind coverage and connected with another deep ball for the Raiders 2nd TD, the Raiders would miss the 2 point conversion to tie it up, and trailed 14-12 going into the 4th quarter.  The Raiders continued their comeback in the 4th, once again Greg Plett would find Patrick Bissonnette, this time only a 10 yard pass, but Bissonnette broke a tackle and out-ran several Transcona defenders turning a 10 yard pass into a 55 yard TD pass to take the lead 19-14.  The Raiders defense which had held strong all day forced their first turnover with a tipped pass being intercepted by Raiders Safety Austin Ridge (#24).  The Raiders would take advantage and Greg Plett continued his big day passing, this time finding WR Shante Murdock (#81) also deep behind coverage, connecting on a 50 yard TD strike to extend the lead to 26-14.  Down by two scores the Nationals were forced to go to the air and the Raiders capitalized as Raiders CB Brett Lussier (#38) would make back-to-back interceptions in the final minutes of the 4th quarter to eliminate any chance of a Nationals comeback.  The Raiders would hold the 26-14 lead for the win.  Raiders QB Greg Plett finished the game with 320 yards passing and 4 touchdowns, Patrick Bissonnette had 175 yards receiving and 3 TD catches, Shante Murdock had 120 yards receiving with one TD.  While the Raiders running backs were not involved in the scoring, they did contribute for over 100 yards along the ground.  Austin Cateller, the MFLM’s rushing leader after Week 1, added another 71 yards on 10 carries, FB Marc Kirouac added 36 yards on 7 carries, and Zack Hazlehurst added 31 yards on 3 carries.  Defensively Brett Lussier had 2 interceptions, Austin Ridge had 1 interception, and defensive lineman Ian O’Connor led the defense in tackles with 10 total tackles.

The Raiders (2-0) continue their string of road games next week as the team travels to Stonewall, MB to take on the Interlake Thunder (1-1), kickoff is at 12:30 pm.