It was a chilly Saturday morning when The Eastman Raiders black team took the field in Transcona against the Nationals.
The game began with the Raiders kicking off to the Nationals. Transcona began with the ball around their own 40 yard line. The Raiders defence started strong with some good tackles by Jerome and Evan. Then Evan followed that up with a fumble recovery. The Raiders offence then drove the ball down the field led by some strong running by Cazden and got as far as the Nationals 30 yard line before being stopped. Some more good defence from the Raiders and a holding penalty against Transcona led them to punt it back to the Raiders. The Raiders offence once again drove down the field starting at their own 40. Bauer, Isaiah and Evan had some nice runs before Cazden finished off the drive with a touchdown run. Stephan used a solid kick to make the convert and the Raiders were off an running with an 8-0 lead. The rest of the 1st quarter was dominated by the swarming Raider defence and transcona penalties. At the end of 1st quarter Raiders 8 Nationals 0. The 2nd quarter started with the Raiders having the ball on their own 20 yard line. Cazden moved the ball down the field smartly with a good run led by strong blocking from his teammates. Jerome then made a great block that sprung Mikka loose as he rumbled down the field for Eastman’s 2nd touchdown. The convert was missed and it was 14-0 Raiders. The Raiders defence continued to dominate the 1st half with strong tackling from Dominic, Jerome, Stephan and Evan. Eastman offence drove down the field again led by runs from Jerome, Cazden and Bauer and good blocking from Anthony. Danic then snuck into the endzone and gave the Raiders a 20-0 lead and the convert made it 22-0. The Raiders kept the Nationals off the scoreboard and the first half ended 22-0 for the Raiders.
In the 2nd half the Raiders received the kickoff and started things off at their own 45 yard line. Eastman used some solid running plays from Mikka, Cazden, Isaiah, and Evan to move down to Nationals 10 yard line before the Transcona defence stopped them. Penalties and defence dominated the 3rd quarter before the Nationals offence used a long run from #49 and made it Raiders 22-Nationals 6 after the convert was missed. So after 3 quarters the Raiders held onto the 22-6 lead. The fourth quarter was highlighted by an interception by Jerome and some much needed tackles from Cazden, Danic and Jerome to keep the Transcona team from scoring any more points and make the final Raiders 22 Nationals 6.