The Superior Express -

It seems only appropriate to explain this game by giving quarter scores to start with.

L/N 8 – 0 – 6 – 0 – 14

Arapahoe 8 – 6 – 0 – 24 – 38

This game was a good old fashioned "Pick em up and knock them down" football game in the finest Raider tradition, until . . .

Until a three minutes and 59 second time unit in the final quarter where just nothing went correctly for the Raiders.

The rest of the game featured sharp hitting, good blocking, fine passing and running and (sorry for the Raiders), some questionable calls by the officials . . . which is always a part of the game.

Arapahoe has a strong football tradition in southwestern Nebraska and came to Lawrence with a strong, mobile team. That was evident early in the game as on the third play of the game they broke a play to the right that covered 60 yards to score the first TD of the game with only a minute, 22 second off the clock.

L/N responded with scoring on their first possession as well. Only it took seven plays to score with a 60 yard drive. The series included a number of runs with two passes mixed in. The first pass was a Krayton Kucera to Blake Janda pass for 29 yards. The second was a Kucera to Trevor Biltoft pass for 19 yards. Janda scored on a five yard run with 6:45 on the clock. A Kucera to Cole Troudt pass was good for the PAT. The PAT play featured a fine bit of "scrambling" by quarterback Kucera.

With still half of the quarter to play, the score was 8-8.

The remainder of the first period featured defense . . . two highlights: The L/N punter was run into as he attempted to punt. However, the officials assessed only a five yard penalty, rather than anything more. The second play highlight was the L/N defense forcing and recovering a fumble near the end of the quarter which ended 8-8.

Quarter 2: Did I mention "defense" ? ? ? Arapahoe put together a 56 yard drive that looked like might record another score, only to be stopped on the Raider two yard line. Arapahoe had a 4th and 2 situation and their quarterback seemed intent on scoring. However Blake Wroughton managed to grasped the sleeve of his jersey to slow him down and then Keith Miller came up to smack him down.

L/N just could not get any offensive scheme to work for the rest of the quarter and Arapahoe took advantage of a short field to score with 2:44 on the clock and L/N trailed at halftime by a score of 8-14.

Quarter 3: L/N received the opening kickoff and promptly moved the ball 61 yards to the Arapahoe four yard line where they could not push the ball over the goal line. The drive included three nice pass plays, two to Keith Miller and one to Tyson Kotinek.

On the following Arapahoe possession the ball was knocked loose from the running back and Tyson Kotinek fell on the fumble on the Arapahoe 20 yard line and the game got interesting. Arapahoe pinned a L/N runner back for a 12 yard loss, but then Trevor Biltoft threw a strike to Tyson Kotinek and the ball was moved to the Arapahoe one yard line. L/N fans say that L/N scored on the following play, but the officials said the runner was actually "pushed" over the line which they said was illegal and slapped L/N with a 5 yard penalty. However on the next play Kucera and Kotinek hooked up on another pass play to score. The PAT failed and with 4:39 left in the third period, the score was tied at 14-14.

Arapahoe used three downs and punted. L/N had the ball on their own 15 yard line. On the first down Trevor Biltoft and Cole Troudt hooked up for a 43 yard pass to the Arapahoe 23 yard line. Four running plays moved the ball to the Arapahoe 12 yard line where the drive stopped just into the final period of play. Score: 14-14

Quarter 4: The teams traded possession with punts early in this period until Arapahoe regained possession on their own 15 yard line. They replicated the first play of the game and scored on a 65 yard run to gain a lead of 14-22.

And the havoc continued . . .

L/N appeared to move the ball out of the shadows of their goal line but a completed pass was negated by a penalty call. On the following play, L/N fumbled in their own end zone and Arapahoe fell on the ball for a TD. The PAT was good and L/N trailed 14-30.

This time the Raider defense stopped Arapahoe from scoring and took over the ball on their own 30 yard line. However . . . on their first offensive play a pass was picked off by Arapahoe and returned to the L/N end zone for the final TD of the game. The PAT was added, ending the almost four minutes of bedlam that determined the game. Score: 14-38. The teams traded possessions in the final 4:38 of the game.

It was sad to watch and realize that only four minutes of the game determined the outcome.

The Raiders started the game without last week's starter Toby Kotinek and during this game, Senior Running Back, Blake Janda, injured his knee and sat out most of this game. Their status for future games is uncertain at this time.

If . . . a person could overlook those four minutes of time, the game was almost dead even. L/N had 253 yards offense and Arapahoe had 261 yards . . . 8 yards different.

High school football in September . . . ain't it great, but the best is if your team wins.

1st Downs: L/N 8; Arapahoe 7.

Penalties: L/N: 10 for 83 yards; Arapahoe: 4 for 50 yards.

Offense: L/N Rushing: 23, Passing: 230; Total 253; Arapahoe Rushing: 246, Passing: 15.

Individual: Rushing: Kucera 19 yards on 15 carries: Passing: Kucera: 13 of 26 attempts for 157 yards; Trevor Kucera: 2 of 2 for 73 yards.

Defense: Tackles (Assisted – Unassisted) Cannaday 3-0; B. Janda 2-0; Kucera 5-3; T. Biltoft 14-1; E. Wheeland 1-0; K. Miller 17-3; K. Mazour 6-0; K. Thompson 3-0; B. Wroughton 6-2; D. Wolfe 1-0; D. Zikmund 1-0.