Last than a week ago after the Vista Ridge win, coach Joshua Mann congratulated his players for guaranteeing themselves 48 more minutes. From the start of Thursday’s night bi-district playoff game, the Raiders made clear they wouldn’t be happy with just 48 minutes.
The varsity football team crushed McCallum 59-27 to win the 4A Division I bi-district championship, snapping the Knights’ four-game winning streak and giving the Raiders their first-ever playoff win.
“It feels amazing,” Mann said. “It’s a great thing that we get to practice more next week, it’s always a great thing to be able to play over Thanksgiving.”
The Raiders would strike quickly with a touchdown on their first series by quarterback Justin Pelt. Logan Kinder would score on a 28-yard pass minutes later and runningback Billy Ray McCrary would extend the Raiders’ lead to 21-0 with a 62-yard touchdown run before the end of the first quarter.
“I feel really good,” said McCrary, who had 189 rushing yards. “The offensive line was really good, the defense was good. We really came together and played well. I have to give credit to the line because they’re the reason I can do what I do.”
Jordan Vice’s interception on the Knights’ next series stopped a drive at the Raiders’ 12-yard line. The Raiders would march it all the way down the field for a Wesley Lewis-Syrie score to go up by four touchdowns.
The Raiders would capitalize on two more turnovers, recovering a fumble that led to a Zack Ramirez 28-yard field goal, and an interception by Aivery Scheffer set up Logan Kinder to score on the next play, his second touchdown of the game. McCallum would finally get on the board just before halftime, with a 17-yard run to make the score 38-7.
“The best part was the first half and scoring on them over and over, and coming out in the second half and scoring on them again,” Kinder said.
In the second half, the Knights would add a 28-yard touchdown in the third and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. But the Raiders continued to dominate the game, scoring three more times, including a touchdown set up by another McCallum fumble.
“It was a great team effort,” Pelt said. “The offensive line did a great job tonight. Hats off to them. They’ve been a rock and it was all-around great effort.”
With the Thursday night win, Mann reminded his players they still had class in the morning and more work to do.
“It’s always a challenge to play on a Thursday, so it’s nice to see the boys come out and play like that,” Mann said. “We can be satisfied tonight, but we got to go back to work tomorrow.”
The Raiders will play the winner of the San Antonio Brackenridge-Alamo Heights match-up next Saturday at 1 p.m. at Bobcat Stadium in San Marcos.
“We played really well, but we could have done a couple of things better,” Josh Petro said. “We got a little sloppy at times, but there’s always time to improve next week. I’m just hoping to come up with the same results. Come out with a win, no matter what.”
