Raiders defeat Swashbucklers, advance to championship game

The Richmond Raiders jumped out to a big lead, but special teams misadventures helped Louisiana get back in the game, and in a frantic fight to the finish the Raider defense held on beyond the final buzzer to secure the 56-50 win and a berth in the inaugural PIFL Championship Game.

Off the opening kickoff, the Raiders traveled 32 yards in four plays and started the scoring on an 11 yard pass from Antwon Young to Jason Lovett.  T.C. Stevens missed the extra point, conjuring flashbacks to last week when missed PATs nearly doomed the Raiders, but he would go on to convert seven of eight such kicks.  After the Swashbucklers got to the Raider nine, the defense snuffed out a screen pass and forced a field goal attempt.  Michael Woodhouse got a clean rush and blocked the kick, and Roshawn Marshall returned it to the Louisiana 15.  On the next play, Young found Antwun Williams wide open in the end zone to make it 13-0.  Buc QB Chris Mayabb snuck into the end zone, but Young answered with a four yard scoring run early in the second quarter.

Again the Raider defense stood tall, with some help from Mayabb as he consistently overthrew his receivers all night.  A 49 yard field goal made it 20-9, but the Raider offense, showing deadly efficiency in the first half, engineered a six play, 30 yard drive ending with Lovett's second TD catch.  Kendrick Perry, the league's leading rusher, had only three carries in the first half, and on his last he turned the corner from four yards out to bring Louisiana within 11.  Antwon Young found Herb Jones streaking down the sideline and dropped a beautiful pass right in his hands, and only a lunging Eric Jackson could nudge Jones out of bounds before he could score.  With the ball at the one yard line at the one minute warning, the Raiders could not inch the ball forward without scoring, so when Young extended the ball over the goal line there were still 32 seconds left, giving the Swashbucklers a chance for back to back touchdowns across the halves.  Brandon Sutton had other ideas, as he sacked Mayabb on second down, then forced an intentional grounding penalty on third down, making the field a little longer for the last play of the half, which fell incomplete.

Leading 34-16 at halftime, the Raiders had built up a little margin for error, which they nearly used up.  The teams traded touchdowns to start the second half, and after Immanuel Friddle's second score of the third quarter, the Swashbuckler defense finally stepped up and got their first stop of the game.  Aided by a personal foul penalty that put the Raiders in a third and 21, the Bucs forced a 55 yard field goal attempt which the Raiders tried to pooch and recover for a fresh set of downs.  The short kick landed nowhere near any Raider players, and Damien Huren scooped it up and ran it in to quickly turn an 18 point deficit into just a four point margin at 41-37.  The Raiders established a little more breathing room with a 23 yard strike from Young to Williams.

As the Swashbuckler offense tried to keep pace, the Raiders again got big plays from the defensive line.  A third down sack forced Louisiana to try a 26 yard field goal to get within eight, but once again Woodhouse rejected it, giving him five blocked kicks in the three games against the Bucs.  A six play, 35 yard drive culminated in a bruising four yard scoring run by Young, and after the PAT and an uno, the Raiders had their biggest lead of the game, 56-37, with 7:59 remaining.  Desperate, the Swashbucklers inserted Alvin Bartie -- their season-starting quarterback who missed nine games with injuries -- and he proved to be the spark they needed.  Stepping through the minefield of a sloppy, penalty-filled drive, he moved his team 45 yards for a touchdown to shrink the margin to 13, but in doing so took almost five and a half minutes, giving the advantage to the Raider offense as long as they could recover the onside kick.  The bouncing ball went right to Antwun Williams, and the Raiders sought to bleed some clock and move the ball.

Unfortunately, they accomplished little on either front.  An Antwon Young scamper on third down ended a yard shy of the sticks, and Stevens was called on for a 22 yard field goal.  Willie Pritchett tipped it, and Louisiana was still alive.  Bartie wasted no time, heaving a 45 yard bomb to Jordan Rideaux, and the Swashbucklers got to within a mere six points with 44 seconds and two timeouts left.  Another onside kick was called, and again it bounced to the Raiders with Maurice Thorne making a nice catch off a strange hop.  If the Raiders could get a first down, they would ice the game, but Louisiana's defense wasn't ready for their season to end.  Young was tackled for a loss, stopping the clock, on second down, and when he ran on third down his lunge for the sticks ended about two feet short.  Rather than risk another negative play, the Raiders opted for a 26 yard field goal to make the lead nine points and force everything to go right just for the Swashbucklers to tie.  But a high snap threw off the timing, and Stevens yanked it well left.  Starting from his own 20 with 16 seconds left, Bartie had the chance to be the hero.  Against a deep zone defense, he completed an underneath pass to the Raider 14, but the now-raucous crowd forced a delay of game.  Bartie threw into the end zone, too high for his receiver, and was fortunate that the clock operator's quick finger left him with one second and one more play.  After another delay of game, Bartie was picked off by Maurice Thorne, who returned it 50 yards for an apparent touchdown, but it was all waved off by an illegal defense.  Given one untimed down, Bartie again threw to for a score, but Roshawn Marshall stepped in front of Friddle and knocked the ball away.

Player of the Game: Antwon Young, who threw for five TDs and ran for three.

Offensive Stars: Antwun Williams caught seven passes for 98 yards and three scores; Jason Lovett scored on two of his four receptions.

Defensive Stars: Michael Woodhouse blocked two field goals and was in on a sack; Brandon Sutton had a sack and numerous additional hurries.

Other Links:

• Times-Dispatch article
• Lake Charles American Press edition
• Raiders website writeup

Next: PIFL Championship, at Albany, Saturday, 7:30pm.