Raiders, Holdrege ready for another tight battle

After opening the season by reversing the outcome from a 2012 contest, the Sidney Red Raiders Football team looks to turn the same trick in game two.

They lost a close one to the Holdrege Dusters 23-18 at home last year. This time around the Raiders take to the road on Friday in hopes of a different outcome. Sidney and Holdrege are scheduled to kick off earlier than usual - at 6 p.m. CDT.

Against Holdrege last year, Sidney took the lead in the fourth quarter. A critical roughing-the-punter penalty against the Raiders, however, gave the Dusters an extra possession. Holdrege capitalized by scoring the winning touchdown.

The Raiders opener last Friday was a rousing success as they reversed their fortunes against Grand Island Northwest from 2012. They were powered by the running tandem of senior Logan Lewis and junior Chance Anglin.

Lewis and Anglin followed the offensive line of Cody Frerichs, Dylan Haas, Jake Sager, Michael Sukup and Tucker Winholz. Combined, Lewis and Anglin rushed for 501 yards. All told, the Raiders piled up 538 rushing yards.

"That was pretty amazing. I wasn't even aware of how many yards they'd run until after the game," said Head Coach Todd Ekart. "There's only one other time I can rembember being involved in a game with 500 rushing yards. We had 508 at Beatrice once."

As for Friday's contest, expect the Raiders to continue showcasing their running game. As Ekart puts it, "That's who we are." The coach went on to add that they want to add more passing to the mix.

"We have to keep teams honest," Ekart said.

The Dusters opened the season with a 21-12 victory on the road over Gering. Holdrege knows that Sidney is an improved team from last season. But Holdrege has a more experienced team to challenge Sidney with. The Dusters return eight players on both offense and defense including starting quarterback Dakota Fulk.

"While we're more experienced, we probably lack depth at some key positions," said Holdrege Head Coach Jason Hale. "But I think Sidney might say the same thing."

Hale went on to say that he expects the Raiders to be as advertised. While Sidney is improved, he said, they're not going to sneak up on anybody.

"They're huge up front on both sides of the ball and we aren't," Hale said. "But we expect to make up for it with our agility and athleticism."

Holdrege is playing their home opener so the team should be fired up. Hale was impressed with how his team handled the long-road trip to Gering last week and expects they will be excited by the atmosphere of its first home game.

"I expect us to play well. We played better in the second half at Gering and I believe we'll build on that," Hale said.