Raiders run to victory over Cardinals
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Mount Ayr 54, NV 0
It was week two of the football season Friday and the Raiders took to the road for the first roadtrip of the season, however, it was a short skip to Leon to face the always tough Central Decatur Cardinals.
The Raiders went into Flockhart Field with a balanced game plan for the Cardinals, however, coach Ryan Victor and company quickly switched gears when Braydon Pierson had a break-out game at running back, carrying 28 times for 233 yards and three touchdowns.
“Line protection wasn’t great today and they did a great job of bringing pressure from all different angles and that is a sign of a well coached football team, which we know CD is,” said coach Victor. “Our adjustment was that we needed to pound the rock inside because they weren’t going to give us the edge and we have some fast kids, but we also think we have some tough kids.”
After the game, Pierson was all smiles but admitted he was sore and was going to rest over the holiday weekend before getting back to business on Monday.
“We started my run game early in the game and it was working full-time so we decided to keep hitting with it,” said Pierson. “It was a great game. The second-half was really exhausting for me. I went into halftime and had to stretch a lot, but it was a really fun second-half. I’m going to ice a lot and this whole weekend I’m going to take time to recover and it’s back to work on Monday.”
The Raiders drove in two first quarter touchdowns on the legs of Pierson before the offense stalled out as the Cardinals made a second quarter adjustment that kept the Raiders out of the endzone for the remaining of the first half, while the Raider defense did the same, giving Mount Ayr a 14-0 lead heading into halftime.
The Raiders tacked on six more points on their first drive of the second-half on a six-yard run from Pierson.
The Cardinals were finally able to answer back and get on the board after a Dalton Barnes sack brought up a 4th and 23.
Cardinal quarterback Sam Boothe and the offense stayed out on the field and Boothe found Jack Scrivner deep for a first down at the Mount Ayr eight yard line.
Boothe would connect with Scrivner one more time for a nine-yard touchdown pass to put the Cardinals on the board.
The Raiders answered back with two more touchdowns, while giving up one in the fourth to the Cardinals as Pierson intercepted Boothe late in the fourth quarter to put the game to an end.
“I know it was 33-13 but it was 14-0 at halftime when it was 14-0 at the end of the first,” said coach Victor. “I hope our guys know that people aren’t going to just roll over for us just because we scored a lot of points. I believe our district has some of the best coaches in 1A football and hopefully our guys saw tonight, no matter who it is they are going to come and play us. We are going to have to earn it.”
Coach Victor spoke about the maturity level of his team and the family relationship they are building within the program.
“We gave up some big plays and some plays at the end. All props to our guys because they were there and Boothe dropped in some amazing balls and those kids made plays,” said coach Victor. “It was good football and you’ve got to be able to weather that storm and understand that it’s only one play and our guys did a good job of understanding that. We are learning and it’s a process. We have some mature guys and it needs to continue to grow.”
The Raiders amassed 323 yards on the ground, with the majority coming from Pierson’s 233-yard night, while through the air, Frost was five-for-10 for 83-yards.
Drew Ehlen had two receptions on the night, the most of the Raider receivers, for 25-yards, while Riley Stark made a catch-in-traffic late in the contest that he took for a 40-yard gain.
Pierson had one catch for 11-yards and Jaydon Knight brought in one for seven-yards.
On the other side of the ball, the Raiders collected five sacks and made 43 total tackles, with 11 tackles-for-loss.
Leading the tacklers was Tyler Martin with six tackles and two tackles-for-loss, while Knight added five tackles with three for a loss and one sack.
Pierson, Kade Dugan, Tate Dugan and Dalton Barnes each had four tackles on the night.
The Raiders gave up 258 yards to Boothe through the air who was 17-for-34 with two touchdowns, while they only gained 23 yards on the ground.
The Cardinal defense had 51.5 tackles on the night, with only six tackles-for-loss and 2.5 sacks.
Mount Ayr will host Riverside this Friday at 7 p.m.
Stats
1 2 3 4 F
MA 14 0 6 13 33
CD 0 0 7 6 13
Scoring
1st Quarter
9:01 – MA – Pierson 11-yd rush. PAT Good.
7:04 – MA – Pierson 14-yd rush. PAT Good.
3rd Quarter
6:46 – MA – Pierson 6-yd rush. PAT No Good.
2:20 – CD – Boothe to Scribner 9-yd pass. PAT Good.
4th Quarter
10:06 – MA – Frost 15-yd rush. PAT Good.
8:45 – CD – Boothe to Applegate 18-yd pass. PAT No Good.
2:59 – MA – Knight 18-yd rush. PAT No Good.
Team Statistics
1st Downs MA CD
Total 22 11
Rushing 18 3
Passing 3 8
Penalty 1 0
Rushing
Attempts 48 22
Gained 350 69
Lost 28 48
Net 322 21
Passing
Completions 5 16
Attempts 10 34
Percentage 50 47
Intercepted 0 1
Net 83 258
Total Offense 405 279
Punts 2 4
Average 32 24.5
Return Yards
Punt Return 10 21
Kickoff 44 44
Int. Returns 40 0
Fumble Ret. 0 0
Fumbles 0 0
Fumbles lost 0 0
Penalties 7 9
Yards lost 61 68
Individual Statistics
Passing
Comp Att Yds
Frost 5 10 83
Rushing
Att. Gain Avg
Pierson 28 233 8.3
Martin 7 30 4.3
Frost 6 14 2.3
K.Dugan 6 27 4.5
Knight 1 18 18
Receiving
Rec Yds Avg
Ehlen 2 25 12.5
Stark 1 40 40
Pierson 1 11 11
Knight 1 7 7
Tackles
S A Loss
Ehlen 2 3 0
Stark 2 2 0
Pierson 2 4 0
Martin 4 0 2
Frost 2 0 1
K.Dugan 1 6 0
Knight 0 4 2
Fleharty 2 3 0
Yoder 0 1 1
Willis 0 1 0
Barnes 1 2 0
Fooken 1 0 0
T.Dugan 1 1 0
Main 0 1 0
Kick-Offs
Kicks Yds
Frost 4 161
Knight 2 77
Punts
Kicks Yds
Pierson 2 64
Kick Return
Returns Yds
Pierson 1 10
Interceptions
INT Yds
Pierson 1 40
Blocked Kicks
Number Yds
T.Dugan 1 0
