Eastman Raiders Atom Black 36 Charleswood Broncos 22 – SEPTEMBER 8, 2012
It was a windy day. The sun was trying to shine but the clouds were keeping us all cool. The assignment? Beating the #1 team in the league – team who had an electronic scoreboard for as long as we can remember – a team with a long standing tradition of winning – a team we needed to beat to be in first place ourselves. What stands out for our young Raiders is a fantastic outing on the offensive side and an unbelievably strong stand on defense to finish the game.
Here are the highlights: We started the game with a bang!! #81 TB quickly found his way into the end zone and #10 Mason kicked a 2 point convert – remember – against a VERY strong wind. (8-0 Raiders) Their #1 had the answer for that and scored the Bronco’s first touchdown – and also made the convert kick (8-8) The ball came back to us and immediately went to #81 TB and again and after some serious cut backs, dancing to get through and plain old shaking tackles it was another major score for the Raiders. (14-8 Raiders) Their #22 bobbled the football but managed to get ahold of it and scored. (14-15 Broncos) On their next possession #50 Daniel had a huge tackle for loss of yards. In spite of the spot, their #25 powered his way into our end zone for a TD. (14-22 Broncos) #10 Mason, with yet another clean hand off from #15 Tyson Koop scored. (20-22 Broncos) And a nice short toss from #15 Tyson to #10 Mason and we had the single point. (21-22 Broncos) A fantastic short kick by #18 Carson and a big tackle by #8 Parker for a loss of yards ended the first half.
Second half, the Raiders’ coaching staff made the switch, #53 Caleb F. to offence, #81 Tyson B. to defense and we were ready to go!! #10 Mason ran behind some key blocks for his 2nd touchdown of the day and had to run about 50 extra yards to get the extra point. (28-22 Raiders) #10 Mason added a 70 yard run, getting out of tackles all over the place and multiple Raiders throwing out blocks to open lanes for him. #40 Paxton Koop after a number of carries and first downs, let out a serious yell and planted their defender on his butt and #10 Mason saw the hole and ran right through into the end zone. (34-22 Raiders) The 2 point convert was good by #10 Mason, with an excellent snap from #6 Anthony to #15 Tyson for the hold. (36-22 Raiders) Our defense took to the field again and #4 contained the runner so that #6 Anthony could finish him off… and SO impressive, the entire defense held them off for a HUGE turnover on downs!! No points for the Broncos in the 2nd half!!! #10 Mason’s “best run of the day” according to Coach Koop came next as he literally battled the defenders to get the 10 yards we needed for a first down to keep the ball moving in our direction! And just to put icing on the cake — #82 Taran Harder came up with a MASSIVE interception to stop their drive and put the ball back in our hands. And since we’re on the topic of great defense, this might be a good place to say, that this had to be #50 Daniel Galessiere’s best game of his career. He was making every tackle, staying on his feet and going low. I didn’t write down every tackle he got because it just got to be too many. Way to go.
Eastman Raiders 61 Nomads South 25 – AUGUST 18
So, the game started off just the way Coach Marlin said it would. An “on-side kick” by them and we needed to get it!! Well, we didn’t. Luckily, one play “does not a complete football game make”. 🙂 And the Raiders were motivated to make the rest of the game better. Here are some of the highlights: Defense gave offence a chance to get on the field when #6 Anthony recovered a Nomads fumble and the Raiders answered back with a 40 yard run by #10 Mason! Some strong blocking by #40 Paxton, a 9-yard run by #15 Tyson K, and a key block by #81 Tyson B to get us a first down – all led to us getting our first touchdown – #10 Mason running up the left side of the field. YEAH!! (6-0 Raiders) Their #4 proved to be VERY fast and before we knew it, they scored. (6-6 Raiders) The ball came back to our offence and #81 TB made a statement by running 50 yards – a great stiff arm along the way. #10 Mason added another touchdown. (12-6 Raiders) The snap by #6 Anthony was ‘on the money’, super hold by #15 Tyson K and #10 Mason kicked it through the uprights for the 2-point convert. (14-6 Raiders) Our defence joined forces and stopped their offence in the backfield and turned the ball over on downs – giving us GREAT field position. #15 Tyson K took one for the team and got flattened as he blocked for #10 Mason – another 1st down! #81 TB really stepped up his blocking game allowing #10 Mason to cross the goal line again. (20-6 Raiders) Serious work by our offensive line – #91 Jayden, #97 Joe, #71 Caleb, #40 Paxton — otherwise known as “THE WALL”!! Defence took their turn on the field again and #50 Daniel Galessiere, in his first game of the season with the Raiders, broke through the line like a pro! #82 Taran pitched in with a great tackle up the middle. Their offence found a small crack in the defence and crossed the goal line (20-12). They converted (20-13) and our offence took the field to get some points back. That’s exactly what they did, blocking #10 Mason to a touchdown. (26-13). The single point convert was successful putting the score at 27-13. #81 TB ran hard for his first touchdown of the game (33-13) and a beautiful #15 Koop to #40 Koop pass got us the single point conversation we were looking for. (34-13) Their offence was gaining a little speed, but #50 Daniel stopped their best running back, #4, with a fantastic tackle. #53 Caleb F had a couple GREAT tackles and our offence was back on the field. #2 Marianna chipped in with a FAST 40 yard run with her teammates blocking her all the way down the field. Awesome team work!!
The second half continued in the Raiders’ favour. The Harder boys, #82 Taran and #17 Kyler were like book ends on the D-line and #4 Matthew matched his number with theirs and wrapped up their #4 for a great stop. #8 Parker continued to put on GREAT pressure with a huge stop up the middle. #33 Zach was a snapping machine and #91 Jayden was having some fun pushing guys, bigger than him, down to the ground, “I just got my 3rd guy down – yeah!!”. (40-13) #22 Logan hunted their man down for a touchdown saving tackle and #17 Kyler took his turn at stopping their best. They did manage to find the end zone another time (40-19) but just couldn’t convert – so the score stayed. #17 Kyler got his try at running with the ball on the kick return and made the most of it – running 30 yards!! #10 Mason ran 40 yards off of a toss from #15 Tyson K for a touchdown. (46-19) The kick was good!! (48-19) #64 Kade directed the runner right into the hands of #6 Anthony and then, #64 Kade followed that up with a serious one-on-one solo tackle — at that moment he was our last line of defence and he came up with his best tackle of the season for sure. #6 Anthony BUSTED through the line for a QB sack and #8 Parker threw in a big tackle and showed GREAT pursuit! They managed to score on the next play. (48-25) Then, the Raiders offence took over again — #40 Paxton went on a bit of a blocking tear, taking down 3 guys as #10 Mason ran 50 yards down the field. #81 TB ran the last leg for a touchdown. (54-25) Back on went the defence — #82 Taran finished a big tackle, #17 Kyler won a foot race and took the next guy down and #6 Anthony recovered yet another forced fumble and the Raiders were ready for more points. #97 Joe was SO solid on the line, all game, and with protection like that #10 Mason was able to break free for a 60 yard touchdown run. (60-25) #2 Marianna raced into the end zone with fast feet (61-25) and #81 TB got a chance to tackle their #4 on the kick return.
And THAT was THAT!! A superb team effort and lots of fun to watch. Good job boys — we are proud of the result but even MORE proud of the effort and your never give up attitude!!! You are prepared and you are passionate — pretty tough to beat that combination — OBVIOUSLY!!! GO RAIDERS GO!!!