The Superior Express -

It’s unfortunate that much of the world today measures things in wins or losses. The 2021 L-N Raider football season will go down in the history books with a 3-6 record.

However, as the coaches, players and close fans know, you would be missing a lot if that is all you judged the team by.

This reporter received the season’s statistics and in looking them over the statistic that jumps out is the offensive production for the year. L-N averaged 348 yards per games. Comparing that with the opponents’ offense combination of 326 yards per game ends up with giving the Raider defense something to talk about as well. Then, consider that two of the games were lost by only two points each.

Now, 22 yards a game isn’t much, but it is something to be proud of. Especially considering the strength of the Raider schedule.

Of the nine opponents this year, we found six teams that qualified for the Playoffs (5 in Class D-2, 1 in Class D-1). All six teams won their first round and were in the field of 16. The Playoffs are now down to the semi-final round and three of the teams are still playing. Actually three of the four semi-final teams in Class D-2 were Raider opponents at one time this season.

The 2021 summary:

Offense: Looking ahead to the 2022 year, the entire Raider offense returns for next year. The “rushing’ production this year came from: Krayton Kucera 856 yards on 145 carries for an average of 5.9 yards per carry. He had 22 TD’s; Toby Kotinek 453 yards on 93 carries and five TD’s; Bayln Bargen 158 yards on 32 carries and 1 TD; Devyn Zikmund 39 yards, 9 carries; Carter Griffis 15 yards on 3 carries; Connor Janda 46 yards on 11 carries; Milo Pano 3 yards, 1 carry, 1 TD; Tyson Kotinek 12 yards, 2 carries; and Wyatt Brockman 3 yards on one carry.

Passing: Krayton Kucera did all the passing for L-N this season. He completed 130 of 214 attempts for a 60.75 percent completion rate. He helped gain 1,543 yards with 14 TD’s and nine, 2-pt. conversions.

Receiving: (receptions-yards-TD’s) Erik Wheeland 28-522-6; Bayln Bargen 27-255-4; Tyson Kotinek 40-472-3; Connor Janda 14-146-1; Toby Kotinek 20-144-0; Keaton Mazour 1-8-0.

Defense: The number of tackles by members of the Raiders were as follows: (number is total of Assisted, Unassisted, tackles for loss and sacks): Krayton Kucera 118, Tyson Kotinek 58, Nolan Ostdiek 55, Toby Kotinek 49, Wyatt Brockman 47, Connor Janda 44, Erik Wheeland 40, Keaton Mazour 39, Clay Williams 27, Devyn Zikmund 19, Wyatt Hajny 18, Roy Davidson 12, Emelio Pano 9, Jacob Swift 7, Bayln Bargen 7, Rocky Miller 6, Cody Brockman 6, AJ Koehler 6, Carter Griffis 5, Aidan Zikmund 4, Trev Mueller 2, Riley Cannaday 2, Sawyer Cox 2, Wyatt Baker 2, Jacob Kathman 2, Will Schaeffer 1, Nathan Elledge 1, Chad Holcomb 0, Evan Jacobitz 0, Carson Vaughn 0.

Football fans learn to accept the bad with the good as part of maturity. We do also, however, look ahead to the next season. The 2022 season will be here before we know it.