Raiders bounce back with 35-0 rout of Redskins

ARCADIA- The Lakota Raiders decided that they were not going to have a repeat of last week as they took their first victory of the season 35-0 in non-conference play against the Arcadia Redskins.It was also the first win of coach Ryan Lozier's career. When asked about what he thought about his first victory as a head coach, he said: "It is surreal. It has always been my dream and I'm thankful that at my age, I have been given this opportunity to be able to do so."It was kind of a cool moment getting a win after the loss against Monroeville last week that stuck with me a little bit. With this victory, I got the monkey off of my back and a weight off of my shoulders and I have to give credit to my team and to my guys I couldn't have done it without them."The lone touchdown of the first quarter would come with a pass from Jalen Wagner to Grant Bomer. Bomer caught it on the 35-yard line and ran all the way to the end zone for a touchdown. Kicker Brandon Leal ended up scoring all of the extra points for the night for Lakota."I had a discussion with Jalen this week and I told him that he had to be a playmaker versus last year where he was game manager and so he knows that I expect a lot out of him," Lozier said of his junior QB.But that wouldn't be the last that the Redskins would hear from Lakota. Barely into the second quarter, Nate Grigson would end up running for a 60-yard touchdown with 11:22 remaining in the quarter after he caught a pass from Wagner and the extra point again was good, which gave Lakota (1-1) a 14-0 advantage.A little over seven minutes passed before Lakota once again scored. To set this up, Wagner would run for five yards and then on the second-and-five he would pass to Avery Shilling, which would then bring the ball to the 35. Wagner once again would pass and converting on, first down he would pass it to Bomer, who would then run for 13 yards to put another six up on the board. Once again, Leal added the point after.After a turnover from Arcadia, the Raiders took over and Wagner had no problem converting once again on a play that started from a pass to Grigson and then he ran for another 13 yards on the next play to score another touchdown before the end of the first half."I didn't like our kids' first half," Redskins coach Derek Kidwell said. "Tonight's performance just was not good enough. We got down early because of some big plays and we knew that their quarterback was athletic. "Normally we are better by the second week but that just did not happen this week. We just have to get back to the lab and keep working on getting better. I liked our kids better in the second half because unlike the first half where they shut down, they just kept going in the second half and they kept trying to convert but couldn't."Lakota's last touchdown for the game came in the third quarter towards the end with 4:24 left. It started on a drive that came as a result of an Arcadia turnover and Lakota would receive it on the two yard line. They then converted that to a second-and-eight that on the fourth to then coming up to the 16-yard line. Wagner threw to Bomer who ran it to the 50-yard line and after an offside penalty call, the Raiders gained another five yards to move it to the 45. Wagner passed it to Grigson. After a penalty reversal, the Raiders went all the way down to Arcadia's 23 yard line. Wagner would pass it for 23 yards to Nick Elchert for a touchdown."Some of the kids on my team have never played football before and are young. We have to practice harder and we have to be able to score. There's no excuse for not scoring. Hopefully we'll get better," Kidwell said.Although the Raiders did win, Lozier did say: "We are not happy with where we are at. We have to continue to get better and have a lot of things to clean up but we will take the wins as they come," he said. "I don't take this responsibility that I've been given for this program lightly and I just hope that it is a sign of better things to come."