After Saturday’s win, the Raiders got a nice surprise on the field at Heroes Stadium. The school’s namesake, Charley Rouse, presented the regional championship trophy to the team, who had just crushed Gregory Portland 44-7.

“It’s indescribable, I really can’t describe it,” Rouse said. “It makes your heart swell.”

It was a shut out for almost 47 minutes, with Gregory Portland scoring only one touchdown.

“It only gets tougher from here, but we’ll enjoy it for the next day,” senior quarterback Justin Pelt said. “As a senior you want to go out on top. When we get into postseason it makes that realization of that dream. Every win from here on out makes it sweeter and sweeter, but we’re still working to get on top.”

The Raiders started off the game strong with a first quarter touchdown by sophomore Billy Ray McCrary to put them on the scoreboard first.

“It set the tone right away,” McCrary said. “But I give all the credit to my offensive line.”

At the start of the second quarter, sophomore Andre Alger made a touchdown catch in the end zone to put the team up by two touchdowns. The fans began a new chant in his honor, screaming “He’s a sophomore.”

“There’s nothing I can really say, I was just born later,” Alger said about the impromptu cheer. “Our defense and blocking was the main priority in this game and we executed today.”

Senior Logan Kinder also scored in the second quarter, a 27-yard touchdown to give the Raiders a 21-0 lead. On the defensive side, the defense held Gregory Portland to only 85 yards and five first downs in the first half.

“We studied all week on what they were going to run so we came out knowing what to expect,” senior Josh Petro said. “We played hard and didn’t let them get any yards, we were doing our best every play.”

In the second half, the Raiders scored three more touchdowns, two by McCrary, who scored on a 9-yard run and later in the third, the sophomore dodged a tackle and ran for a 40-yard touchdown.

With the score at 35-0, junior Wesley Geisler took over as quarterback for the fourth quarter. Junior Sigi Martinez scored one final touchdown and Zack Ramirez added a field goal. The defense forced several turnovers, including two turnovers by Aivery Scheffer and a fumble recovery by Sean Hallberg.

With the second string defense in, Gregory Portland finally got on the board with 1:08 left in the game to keep the game from being a shutout. The Wildcats end their season 10-3 while the Raiders are now 9-4.

“Their coaching staff did a great job,” head coach Joshua Mann said. “We were on track tonight we stayed focused, when we do that we’re a pretty good football team.”

The Raiders now advance to the fourth round of playoff and will play the winner of the Leander Flour Bluff match-up.

“We are blessed to get to play another 48 minutes so it doesn’t feel real right now,” Mann said. “It’s an amazing feeling.”