CORDOVA, Ala. – After starting the season 2-0 with wins over Carbon Hill and Priceville, the Raiders traveled to take on the Cordova Blue Devils Friday night and get region play underway.
Good hope won the toss and deferred to the second half and Cordova opened the game with a stellar return to start out on the Raiders’ 45-yard line. The Blue Devils started out strong only to turn ball over on downs at the Good Hope 12-yard line.
Good Hope was covered up on its first run for a loss, but the second play was a 90-yard pass from Tanner Malin to Drew Maddox that went for a touchdown and made it a 7-0 game. When Cordova received the ball for its next possession, the Blue Devils gave it right back after a quick three-and-out. It seemed like no one was getting anywhere but Good Hope took over at its own 19-yard line and drove down the field to score on a 7-yard pass with Malin once again connecting with Maddox and making the score 14-0 Raiders.
Cordova responded with a 58-yard scoring drive that made it 14-7 early in the second quarter but Good Hope answered with a long drive on its next possession, ending in Malin running it in from 12 yards out to bring the score to 21-7 following the extra point.
The Blue Devils took ball down into Raider territory only to turn over the ball on downs and the Good Hope went into the half with a 21-7 lead.
The Raiders received the ball to start the third quarter but fumbled on the very first play to give the Blue Devils the ball in Good Hope territory. A defensive stance held Cordova from scoring and gave the offense back the ball back on its own 32-yard line.
After a very lengthy drive, a couple of negative penalties and Malin getting banged up on the 1-foot marker, the Raiders finally found the end zone on a carry from Bagwell to go ahead 27-7. The Blue Devils managed to cut into the lead and make it 27-14 but it wasn’t enough to overcome Good Hope and the Raiders held on to win it 27-14.
After the game, Raiders head coach Alan Scott was proud of the way his kids competed but said he looks forward to cleaning some things up as they continue playing.
“I am really proud of our effort and intensity tonight. Any time you can go to Cordova and win it’s huge,” Scott said. “There are several things that we have to clean up moving forward, but we are very grateful to be sitting at 3-0 right now.”
In my opinion, it was a good night to be a Raiders fan.
Good Hope will be back in action when it travels to Tanner to face the Rattlers next week.
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