Raiders finally put away Lions, sweep season series

Everything seemed to be going the Raiders' way, as they took a 28 point lead early in the fourth quarter thanks to a dominant defense and an efficient offense.  But the Columbus Lions had other thoughts and scored 41 points in the final 13 minutes, forcing the Raiders to hang on to a 74-64 win in the teams' final regular season meeting.

In a glimpse of the scoring onslaught later to come, both teams wasted little time the first time they had the ball. The Lions took two plays to get in the end zone, the Raiders one, but the Lions blinked first on their second drive as they settled for a field goal.  Antwon Young ran in from nine yards, then after the Lions missed a field goal and Young threw a 14 yard TD to Herb Jones, the Raiders had their biggest lead of the first half at 19-10.

Columbus QB Randy Hippeard found his rhythm in the second quarter, throwing 30 yard touchdowns on consecutive plays sandwiching a T.C. Stevens field goal to put the Lions back on top by one, thanks to a Chandler Brooks uno.  Not to be outdone, Young threw his fourth touchdown pass of the half, a 20-yarder to Hakeem Moore, putting the Raiders back on top by six.  That would be the halftime margin as each team missed a field goal to close the first half.

The Raiders dominated the third quarter, opening with an eight play, 30 yard drive that took over five minutes before Young took it in from the one and Stevens notched an uno to put Richmond up by 14 and force Columbus to start from their own five.  The first snap of their drive was a low bouncer that Hippeard couldn't pick up as it ricocheted off the back wall, and Preston Hines fell on it for a touchdown.  Another uno backed up the Lions again, and again their first play was a turnover with Ke'Mon Bailey, playing his first game of the year, picked off Hippeard.  The Raiders couldn't capitalize as Stevens blasted a field goal into a down lineman, and Columbus got off the deck to put together a six play drive that ended on the Raider one-inch line when Hippeard, trying to score on a QB keeper, was ruled to have fumbled before crossing the goal line.

The Raiders capped off a 22-0 run over the first 15:30 of the second half -- which extended to a 29-0 run over 23 minutes dating back to the first half -- when Herb Jones caught a desperation screen pass from Young, who had fumbled the snap, and ran 12 yards to paydirt before fumbling.  Now in the fourth quarter, Jones' fumble happened in almost the exact same spot as Hippeard's, with the only difference being the score/no score calls.  Now leading 51-23, the Raiders defense -- which was missing starters Lawrence Lewis (season ending injury), Maurice Thorne, Michael Woodhouse, and Chris Johnson -- could ill afford to assume a victory because the Lions were just getting started.  Hippeard threw touchdowns of 28 and 38 yards to Maurice Dupree on consecutive plays thanks to an onside kick recovery to pull Columbus within 14 with 12 minutes left.

Now in comeback mode, the Lions would try five more onside kickoffs through the end of the game, but recover none of them as Brooks' bouncers consistently went a few yards too many downfield, enabling clean catches by the Raiders before any Lions could get close.  Hippeard wasted little time looking deep, getting touchdowns on one-play drives four times, coupled with a drive each of two and three plays in a fourth quarter that saw him go 8-for-9 passing for 188 yards and six touchdowns.  The Raiders, despite their best efforts, just couldn't run out the clock as Jordan Pavlisin scored two rushing TDs in the final minute to ensure Columbus would never get closer than 10 points.  Hippeard set single game league records for passing yards and TDs, but the Raiders got the win and the all important tiebreaker in the head to head matchup.

Player of the Game: Antwon Young, who threw for five touchdowns, ran for two more, and upped his league-leading TD to interception ratio to 39-3.

Offensive Stars: Herb Jones had two touchdowns among his nine catches, Jordan Pavlisin carried the ball eight times for 35 yards and two scores in his first home game, T.C. Stevens was shaky on extra points but had two huge unos that gave the Raider defense field position to force turnovers.

Defensive Stars: Preston Hines had the fumble recovery TD and a sack, Brent Trice recovered the controversial Hippeard fumble to end a Lion threat.

Other Links:

• Times-Dispatch article
• Raiders website recap
• Columbus Ledger blurb
• Lions website writeup

Next: at Alabama, 6/2, 8pm