The Superior Express -

The L-N Raider football team traveled to Osceola Friday to play last year's Class D-1 Champion. This year, Osceola is rated as the No. 2 Class D-2 team, right behind this week's opponent, BDS, who happens to be the number one rated team in class D-2.

The old cliché came to mind: 'The Raiders hit the wall.' The boys did play well at times in spite of the score, but Osceola's team just couldn't be slowed down enough.

Osceola featured a big, fast team that quickly showed why they are rated as high as they are. For L-N the junior and senior members of the team returned to play after sitting out two weeks because of the COVID pandemic.

In the first period, Osceola scored on all three possessions they had. However, the Raider defense slowed down their attack, forcing them to use eight plays for one TD and nine for another TD drive.

In the last couple of minutes of the period, L-N started a TD drive that saw Keith Miller rip off a 20 yard run and Krayton Kucera complete a 19 yard pass to Cole Troudt. The period ended with L-N on the Osceola 10 yard line and the score 0-20.

Quarter #2: It took three plays, but a Kucera to Trevor Biltoft pass was good for nine yards. Miller tried to cover the last yard, but was stopped and on a 4th down, Kucera was able to bull his way into the end zone. The PAT pass from Kucera to Cole Troudt was good to put the score at 8-20.

The Raider defense stiffened somewhat in the second period allowing only two scores on the four Osceola possessions. Wyatt Hajny had an outstanding defensive effort in this period. L-N scored their second TD of this period with 53 seconds left before half time. They covered 52 yards in four plays with Miller having a nice run and then catching a short pass. With the ball on the Raider 37 yard line Kucera and Troudt again hooked with on a pass play that resulted in the second score for L-N Kucera ran the PAT and the half time score was set at 16-38.

Quarter #3: A strange beginning. This reporter had never seen a beginning like this. Osceola kicked four time before they got a useable kick. The first time was out of bounds, the second was out of bounds, the third saw 'off-setting' penalties and finally the fourth was good. However, after the Raiders had a nice return run, a fumble gave the ball over to Osceola.

Osceola scored all three possessions while L-N had the one fumble lost and one pass interception to contend with. The period ended 16-60.

Quarter #4: Quick and scoreless. Only 17 plays total for both teams in this period without any scoring. The game ended 16-60.

First Downs: L-N 7; Osceola 14.

Penalties: L-N 6 for 35 yards; Osceola 7 for 70 yards.

Fumbles, lost: L-N 1, 1; Osceola 0-0.

Team Offense: L-N: Rushing 79 yards on 26 attempts; Passing: 92 yards on 7 of 15 attempts. Osceola: Rushing 377 yards on 48 attempts; Passing 1 of 2 for 3 yards.

L-N Individual offense: Rushing: Keith Miller 31 yards on 10 attempts; Krayton Kucera 13 yards on 9 attempts; Trevor Biltoft 13 yards on 1 attempt; Diego Wolfe 12 yards on 3 attempts.

Passing: Kucera 7 of 14 attempts for 92 yards.

Receiving: Cole Troudt 3 for 66 yards; Trevor Biltoft 1 for 9 yards; Keith Miller 3 for 17 yards.

Defense: (Assisted, unassisted) Conner Cannaday 5-0, Wyatt Brockman 1-0, Cole Troudt 1-0, Krayton Kucera 7-0, Trevor Biltoft 14-3, Erik Wheeland 3-2, Tyson Kotinek5-1, Darren Kathman 1-0, Keith Miller 13-7; Konnor Thompson 4-0, Wyatt Hajny 2-0, Blake Wroughton 1-1, Emilio Pano 1-1, Diego Wolfe 1-1, Nolan Ostdiek 2-0, Devyn Zikmund 1-0.

This week, L-N will have their last regular season game as the No. 1 rated team in Class D-2 come to Lawrence