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4SHOT Sports Football - 2008
Newton outlast Redan The odds of getting out of Panthersville Stadium Friday with a victory were stacked pretty high against the Rams after taking a 25-7 disheartening loss against Stephenson the week before. However, the Rams decided to face them head on escaping with a 42-36 overtime victory to get their first region win. Newton won the toss but decided to defer until the second half to put their defense on the field to serve notice that the Rams are here to dominate. Redan started their first drive from their 20 going three-and-out as the Rams’ defense found a home in the Raiders’ backfield. Defensive end Hjamal Hunte wreaked havoc upon Raider quarterback Akil Dan-Fadio forcing the Raiders to punt. Newton start their first possession from their own 40-yard line getting a first down on a 20-yard run by Fred Davis before Akeem Hunt went in from 15 yards out two plays later. The Rams scored on a two-point conversion to take an 8-0 lead when Demetrius McCray found split end Bart Lindsey in the back of the end zone with just four minutes off the clock in the first period. On the Raiders next possession, Justice Ejike served notice that he was in the ball game and he had come to play setting up his part of the house in Redan’s backfield as the Rams held the Raiders to another three-and-out. The Raiders were hit with a penalty for a face mask infraction giving Newton a first down at the Raider 14. Davis went 14 yards on the option for the score and the Rams increased their lead 15-0 after a Cody Sandler PAT with 5:06 left in the first. When it looked as though Newton would run away with the game, the Raiders’ Justin Sims went on a 24-yard touchdown scamper to get Redan on the board diminishing the Rams’ lead 15-8 after the extra point. Newton came right back to score on a 75-yard burst for a touchdown by McCray and Newton led 22-8 with 2:36 left in the first period. "Demetrius (McCray) played a heck of a ball game," said Ram head coach Nick Collins. He’s a good leader and he did a lot of great things for us. I can’t say enough about him." Redan scored on their next possession going on a 6-play 70-yard drive capped with a 25-yard touchdown pass from Dan-Fadio to Benton and the Raiders were within eight points of Redan 22-14 after the PAT with 1:33 remaining in the first period of play. Redan’s offense took over in the second going on an eight-play 67-yard drive for the score and a two-point conversion to tie the game at 22 with 9:23 remaining in the first half. Redan stopped Newton at the 35 forcing the Rams to punt with 5 minutes remaining in the half Redan advanced the ball to the Newton 40, but the Ram defense dug in to stop the Raiders’ threat. Newton got the ball back to go on a 60-yard scoring drive converting on the two-point try to take a 30-22 lead to the locker room at the half. Both defenses tightened in the second half, but Newton managed to score to take 36-22 lead with 9:03 left to play. Redan managed to score but failed the two-point conversion attempt and Newton led 36-28 with 7:42 left. Redan scored again after their defense stopped Newton 40. Sims took a handoff and went 40 yards for the score and converted the two-point play to tie the game at 36 with 4:20 remaining. Neither team could score in the final minutes of regulation sending the game into overtime. Redan won the toss to get first possession in overtime. The Ram defense held the Raiders with Deandre Rashada picking off a Raider pass attempt to give the ball over to the Ram offense. On the first play Hunt ran the ball down to the Raider one setting up a D.J. Hill one-yard burst up the middle of the Raider defense for the score to give the Rams a 42-36 region victory. "I’ll take an ugly win over a pretty defeat any day, " said Collins. I don’t know what happened, my defense shocked me." © Copyright 2006 by 4SHOT Sports |
