In spite of the incredible tailgate party put on by the SHS Booster Club, and with the fans charged up cheering on the Raiders varsity football team, it still wasn’t enough to overcome Roosevelt’s momentum. Going into the game, the Stevens Raiders at 3-1 and the Roosevelt Rough Riders at 2-2, fans and players alike were expecting to see a homecoming victory. Confident of how well they performed against O’Gorman the previous week, Stevens Principal John Julius said, “I feel we’re going to win! We’re fired up, looking good!”
Roosevelt opened the game with a win of the coin toss, and elected for the Raiders to receive. On the fourth play of their first drive, Stevens was forced to punt. Roosevelt blocked the punt and immediately recovered on the Raider 12 yard line. However, the Raiders redeemed themselves by recovering a fumbled ball on Roosevelt’s second offensive play. After more Sioux Falls defense, the Raiders were forced to another punt. On Roosevelt’s fourth play of their drive, Rough Riders Quarterback number two Connor Potas ran it in for the first points of the game. Shortly after, Raider running back Demetrius Ryan #25 fired back by carrying it in for the first Raider touchdown. Stevens would keep the game tied at the end of the 1st quarter.
It didn’t take long for Roosevelt to start the boost that they needed to pull away with a victory. In the last minute of the half, Quarterback Hayden Hast passed it to wide receiver Alex Litzen in the end zone to add a few more points to the Raiders score. Instead of the single point kick, they decided to go for a two-point conversion. They handed the ball off to Ryan who took it in for two more points. This shortened the lead at the half to 29-15.
Roosevelt came out of the locker rooms fired up to start the second half, scoring an immediate touchdown on the first play. It was downhill from there for the Raiders, who were able to only score seven more points in the game. With Stevens leading tackler Alex Schnell, and defensive back Seth Johnson missing due to knee injuries, the Rough Riders were able to attack the defense hard with major rushing game. The Rough Riders spoiled the homecoming game by beating the Raiders 58-22. By the end of the game, the Raiders defense had allowed a total of 663 yards of total offense for Roosevelt.
First-year Roosevelt head coach Kim Nelson said, “Hopefully we can kind of use this as a springboard game. We played really well against a really good football team. We put four quarters together. I think Stevens is going to win some more games this year. We just put it together tonight. We grew up a bit.”
Head Coach Paul Ferdinand expressed his thoughts on the game. “They have big lineman --good team all the way around. They did what they needed to do against us. We’re a team, and if someone gets injured somebody needs to step up, and realistically nobody stepped up. Injuries are a big part of the game and we need to overcome it. They made plays, we didn’t. We had chances to make tackles, and they broke tackles. We just need to work on the fundamentals of blocking and tackling.”
Pierre, with a record of 4 and 1, will host RC Stevens, 3-2, on Friday, October 2, at 7:00pm. Then the Raiders will travel to Sioux Falls Lincoln to face the Patriots on Friday, October 9. The next home game will be against Sioux Falls Washington on October 16 at Dunham Field/O’Harra, and finishing off the regular season is a contest against the Central Cobblers on October 22 at 7:00pm, Dunham Field/O’Harra.