Raiders win first district game

RICE RAIDERS 42, BRAZOS COUGARS 14

The Rice Raiders bounced back in a big way this week by beating the Brazos Cougars 42-14 Friday night.

The win was their first district win of the season, leaving them with a 1-1 record through two games.

The game started out a little slow for the Raiders with a lot of mistakes and negative plays. It was not the Raider team we have all come to know this season, especially on the offensive side of the ball.

A couple of bad drops, fumbled snaps and a ton of penalties made it difficult for the Raiders to score in the first half. The Cougars defense did a great job of getting off the field on third down and just let their offense go to work.

The Cougars held onto the lead with a little over a minute to go in the first half. But they fumbled a snap that was recovered by the Raiders at the two-yard line and RJ Myers did the rest scoring a touchdown and a two-point conversion to tie the game at 14-14 before halftime.

Raiders head coach Brad Dumont gave a very passionate speech to his team before they even left the field for halftime. Essentially telling his team to shape up that message carried over into the locker room and the Raiders came out with a new sense of urgency.

Kordae Johnson started to come alive in the second half and he finished the game completing 14 of his 21 pass attempts (67%) for 134 yards and 1 touchdown. On top of that Myers found the endzone again and Dyren Johnson racked up 123 yards on the ground on 17 carries and a touchdown.

The Raiders defense also returned to form in the second half and shutout the Cougars. The run-pass option the Cougars were running gave the Raiders a little bit of trouble in the first half but in the second half they started to break through the offense line and cause a ton of havoc for the Cougars offense.

The Raiders ultimately got the win this week and will be looking to build upon it in their next game against Industrial on Friday, Oct. 18.