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The Rice Raiders were eliminated from the playoffs after they were defeated by the Lexington Eagles 38-27 on Thursday night.
The Raiders and Eagles met at Bastrop Memorial Stadium for their first round Playoff matchup.
The game started with a scoreless first quarter with both defenses having their way early on in the game. Deveron Bennett and the Raiders defensive front were living in the Lexington backfield and put the Eagles behind the sticks on a couple of drives.
The Raider secondary also did a great job of covering receivers down the field. They broke up passes when necessary but also their coverage gave their defensive front more time to work at the line of scrimmage to force sacks and tackles for loss.
They worked well together but the first quarter was the only scoreless quarter for Lexington though as they went on to score 38 points over the next the quarters. The Raiders offense also woke up after the first but unfortunately, they were shutout in the fourth quarter and that was the deciding factor in this game.
At the end of the second quarter the score sat at 10-7 in favor of the Eagles. Coming out of halftime the Raiders needed to find a way to get things evened back up and potentially retake the lead in the second half.
D’Neriyan Fuller caught six passes for 104 yards and a touchdown.
A good way to do that is by scoring points and the Raiders scored 20 points in the third quarter. The Raiders offense exploded onto the scene and made their presence felt in the third quarter, unfortunately the Eagles offense also had a big third quarter.
The Raiders offense was led by Kor’Dae Johnson who completed 14 of his 24 pass attempts for 161 yards a touchdown and an interception. D’Neriyan Ful ler was his top target on Friday night, he caught three passes for 75 yards and a touchdown.
Robert Bennett and Dyren Johnson led the way on the ground for the Raiders with Bennett carrying the ball six times for 104 yards and a touchdown. Dyren Johnson carried the ball 17 times for 93 yards and a touchdown.
The Eagles scored 21 points in the third leaving us with a 31-27 ball game going into the fourth and final quarter. The Eagles added seven more points to their lead in the fourth while they shut out the Raiders on defense to close out the game.
The Raiders season has ended, but the improvement from this year to last cannot be understated. The Raiders went from winning only four games last year to winning seven games and making the playoffs.
They laid down a lot of good solid foundations for the future and will be looking to build on it next season.
