(New Buffalo, MI) - The Red Arrow Raiders came back from their only defeat this season to win their third game of high school football, 36-20 at Eau Claire on Friday, September 15th.
“It was just a really good, physical, competitive football game,” said Raiders Head Coach Matt Johnson
The score was 8-8 at halftime.
During the third period, the Raiders (3-1) gave themselves some breathing room with two touchdowns before the Beavers put the ball into the endzone again.
The highlights for the Raiders included 48 yard touchdown runs by senior halfback Owen Slavens and junior quarterback Ethan Lijewski.
Senior Payton Lijewski wound up in the endzone twice on pass receptions, while junior M’Nason Smothers rushed for a touchdown.
On defense, Vaugh Nikkel had 11 tackles and assisted on 14 others. Slavens had three solo tackles and assisted with 15 in turn, while Cam Forker recorded five solo tackles and assisted with another seven (on top of recovering a fumble).
Payton Lijewski was involved in 12 total tackles while David Nicely added five solo tackles, including three for loss of yardage.
The Raiders' defense gave up only one big scoring play, a 46-yard touchdown run, and held the Beavers to 236 yards, rushing on 62 attempts.
Eau Claire had just seven yards passing.
“They had to fight tooth and nail for every yard they got. I would say that’s probably our best defensive effort of the season,” he said.
Offensively, the Raiders had 332 total yards with 256 of those yards gained on 32 rushes.
Lijewski threw for 76 yards by completing seven out of 14 passing attempts.
Johnson said he was pleased with how his team responded after starting the season with two blowout victories, then losing to Marcellus 68-26 the previous week.
The level of physical play against Eau Claire was what he had hoped to see against Marcellus, which was more dominating on the field with their strength and size.
“We were a week late but sometimes you have to learn those tough lessons,” he said.
