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Raiders strong all-around in 32-13 romp over Chase County

After the Sidney Red Raiders football team defeated the Chase County Longhorns 32-13 in a non-league contest at Weymouth Field Friday night, senior Logan Lewis greeted family and friends near the south end zone.

As he accepted a steady stream of congratulations, back slaps and good wishes, he looked just about as he's always does after the final gun - tired but satisfield.

With another 30-plus carry night, Lewis gained a hard fought 161 yards on the ground and 59 more receiving to help power another strong Raiders offensive performance. As if that wasn't enough he was also crowned Homecoming King at halftime. Sarah Mahr was crowned Homecoming Queen.

Alongside Lewis in the backfield were his partners in success, junior Chance Anglin and senior Michael Deaver.

Anglin continued to pile up the yards with 187 on 25 carries. Anglin added 2 touchdowns to his night's work. Deaver amassed 73 yards on just 9 carries. In front of the Raiders backfield trio were their ground-game escorts in Michael Sukup, Dylan Haas, Jake Sager, Cody Frerichs and Dominic Beyer. Tucker Wintholz was inserted late to add to his defensive line responsibilities. When it counted most, the fivesome was winning most of the battles up front.

"They're beasts," said Lewis. "Our whole offensive line is a bunch of beasts."

For the Raiders (3-0) it was another dramatic reversal of fourtune from 2012 when they were blown out by the Longhorns (1-1) at Imperial 48-8. The win also gives Sidney their first three-game winning streak since 2005. Sidney opened that campaign with a narrow 14-13 loss to Chase County before reeling off three straight.

Defensively the Raiders were again solid, despite giving up two big plays which accounted for the Chase County touchdowns. But the Raiders made more big plays on defense than they gave up--the most dramatic of which was junior linebacker Kevin Jurgensen's 51-yard interception return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.

While Jurgensen's interception return put the icing on the cake to another victory, it was Lucas Rosenbaum's two second-quarter interceptions that may have been the most critical. He first picked off Chase County quarterback Kelton Fisher in the endzone to preserve a Sidney 7-point lead. Rosenbaum stepped in front of another Fisher pass with 16 seconds left in the first - again in Raiders territory.

Employing a no-huddle offense throughout the contest, as did their opponents, the Raiders scored on their opening drive - just as they had the week before at Holdrege. In fact, the opening drive against the Longhorns was remarkably similar to the one from last week.

Taking the ball at their own 32-yard line, Anglin opened the Raiders offensive effort by scampering for a 29-yard gain. Later he went for 16. But as was the case last week, the Raiders adversaries played the run tough early on. As Anglin was twice thrown for a loss in last week's opening drive, so Lewis was twice thrown backward in Friday's opening march.

"They've got a couple of big farm boys over there that love football and love to hit," said Lewis. "The're going to stack the box against me and I know that."

After Lewis second backwards run, quarterback Lane Harvey dropped back to pass. As he did last week, Harvey found Rosenbaum for the game's opening score and a 6-0 lead.

Not unlike last week too, the opponents answered the Raiders with a big-play touchdown. Fisher found Trey Milner on a third-and-15 play for a 40-yard touchdown in the final two minutes of the opening quarter. David Almanza's kick gave Chase County a narrow edge.

The Raiders responded with an eight play 67-yard drive that featured Lewis handling the ball five times. The yards came hard for Lewis on the ground with runs of 2, 5, 4 and 0 on consecutive carries.

After Anglin spelled him for two plays, gaining 12 yards on a couple of carries, Harvey gave the ball back to Lewis - this time through the air. Lewis caught the ball in the flat and rumbled for a 15 yard gainer. Anglin took it the rest of the way as he out ran the Longhorns to the outside and scampered to the endzone down the home sideline. Deaver put the cherry on top by running in the two ponter for a 14-7 lead.

"I heard they were a tough team and they were a tough team," said Sager who piled up enough pancakes to feed a family of four. "I wanted to take it upon myself to fire these guys up."

Sager, a junior, arrived from Medford, Ore. earlier this year. He has been a powerful addition to both the offensive and defensive lines.

"I love Sidney. I couldn't be happier than to come to a family like this," he said.

Sidney followed its go-ahead score with an onside kick that was recovered by the Longhorns at midfield. The Raiders defense bent only slightly, however. They forced a punt after yielding 15 yards on 6 plays. The ensuing Chase County punt by Dan Sullivan gave Sidney the ball at their own 10. Eleven plays and 90 yards later the Raiders upped their advantage to 20-7 after Harvey snuck it in from the one.

Deaver was the workhorse to start the drive. He toted the ball 19, 7 and 33 yards on consecutive snaps to give Sidney a first down at the Longhorns' 31. Lewis took the rock next for 3 yards, but Anglin and Tyler Wintholz were both thrown back for short losses. Harvey solved the problem on fourth-and-11 with a 25-yard completion to Wintholz.

Chase County's next attept to get back into it was thwarted by Rosenbaums first interception. Harvey then engineered a clock-eating drive that started from the Raider nine and and continued to the Longhorns 28 before being stopped on downs. Rosenbaum stopped Chase County's final drive of the half with his second pick.

With a 13-point lead, the Raiders were even more committed to the run in the second half. The six drives in the third quarter yielded no scores, three punts and a Sidney fumble. The stingly Raiders defense was highlighted by a Jake Heeren sack on third-and-one. The 6-yard loss forced the Longhorns into a punt.

Chase County quickly broke the scoring drought in the fourth stanza to suddenly make it a game again. With four runs and one incompleted pass the Longhorns galloped 73 yards for a tocudown and a 20-13 deficit with 10:27 left.

The Raiders couldn't sustain their next drive long enough for an insurance touchdown. Neverthless, the Raiders faithfull were brought to their feet on the drive when Anglin romped for 21 yards. Frerichs sprang Anglin by flattening the Longhorns' Kevin German with a big block. Harvey provided the drive's other highlight by plowing backwards for a 7-yard run over the middle on third and a foot.

The Raiders finally hit paydirt with 5:10 left when Anglin ran in from the five. Sager proved to be Anglin's best friend as he twice ran over Longhorn defenders during the four-play scoring drive.

Chase County was helped on its next drive with a Sidney roughing-the-passer penalty but could do little on its own. Besides a Fisher 14-yard run, Chase County's attempt to make a game of it went nowhere. Jurgensen made sure when he picked Fisher off for his 51-yard scoring play.

"I saw (Fisher) coming out in that bubble and I knew what they were doing," Jurgensen said. "I just knew it was going to happen, I could see it right away. Once I got it I wouldn't let anybody catch me."

The Raiders face a tough test next Friday night when they travel to Aurora for a battle of undefeated teams. The Huskies (3-0) took to the road and handed Seward (2-1) its first loss of the season 25-10. Game time is scheduled for 7 p.m. CDT.

 

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