By Theodore Tollefson

The Hastings Raiders Football team played their first conference game of the season against the Simley Spartans at home last Friday, winning the game 28-14.

The first quarter was a scoreless affair for both teams as the Raiders defense held the Spartans in check throughout its duration. The second quarter was looking to be the same up until the four minute mark as senior quarterback Axel Arnold threw a four yard pass to senior wide receiver Stephen Reifenberger for the Raiders first touchdown of the game. Raiders kicker Rhys Fillion completed the extra point to give the Raiders a 7-0 lead going into halftime.

To start the third quarter, the Raiders recovered a fumble from the Spartans on second and 10 at the Spartans own 41 yard line. The Raiders capitalized on that fumble from the Spartans quickly as their first offensive play in the third quarter was a handoff from Arnold to Raiders’ junior running back Payton Burow, who ran for a 41 yard touchdown. The Raiders led 14-0 only a minute and 40 seconds into the second half.

Following the fumble recovery and touchdown, the Raiders defense lit up the Spartans once again and recovered another fumble by the Spartans running back. Unfortunately for Hastings this time, when the offense returned to the field after the fumble, Arnold tried to throw another pass to Reifenberger that was intercepted by the Spartans.

Even with the interception made by the Spartans, the Raiders defense was able to stop the Spartans at their own 30 and get a second chance to add another touchdown to their efforts. And the Raiders did just that with a 37-yard pass from Arnold to junior wide receiver Johnny Bezdicek who caught the pass for a touchdown. The kick from Fillion on the extra point was good and made it 21-0 Raiders with six and a half minutes left in the third quarter.

The remainder of the third quarter went scoreless for both teams. To start the fourth quarter, the Spartans had a spark in their offense within the first 20 seconds as they scored their first touchdown of the game to make it 21-7, Raiders.

The Raiders were able to respond to the Spartans when the ball came into their possession for the second time in the fourth quarter. Arnold started with a pass to Reifenberger once again who completed a 49-yard run for another Raiders touchdown that made it a 28-7 game.

The Spartans scored their final touchdown with four minutes and 20 seconds left in the game, but that would finalize the score for both sides as the Raiders offense killed the clock to ensure their first conference victory over the Spartans for the 2021 season.

After the game, Danny Millner, a junior defensive back for the Raiders, spoke on the impressive performance from the Raiders defense, “Honestly, I think the team really did well with everything. I mean, offensively all them got to do their job best. Defensively, we were to the football as a team, all 11 hats. It was great, and special teams we did well on all ends. I think our team is gonna be on a roll now we’re just gonna keep rolling. I mean, it takes a whole team to do what we do so well. All of the people on the field working together was a great game. I think I did a great job tackling, I was trying to be better at tackling than games before,” said Millner Ben Clemens, a senior wide receiver and defensive back, also spoke after the game on the team’s success Friday night. “It feels great, you know, I mean starting off with, I’d say like a good loss you know we fought hard, and then coming off two great wins it feels great,” said Clemens.

“So we were in a missile which is our like safety play, and so I was the back, keeping everything in front of me, and then Luke Chorlton, he made the play, and he was on his guy, and he tipped it, and I went out and caught it,” said Clemens on their defensive play of the game.

Raiders Football Head Coach Dana Strain chipped in on the team’s victory Friday night and what they have going forward playing St. Thomas Academy this upcoming Friday.

“Well, we just played a really good football team and played a really good football game on our own end, in all phases. We ran the ball well, we ran hard, we ran downhill. We said coming into the game that we have to be able to stop their running and we gotta get piles going forward and we did that. We went forward on some fourth downs and got huge push on QB sneaks. That’s just that mentality and that’s one upfront and made some big plays. And we had a lot of kids that played one of the best games in the season so far,” said Strain.

Strain continued speaking on the St. Thomas matchup for Friday, September 24. “Something we said this past week is we’re playing a good football team and we just got to worry about ourselves and get better and that’s what our kids did tonight. The kids came out and played the best game they played so far this year, and we’re gonna come out next week and play the best game that we played so far. We’ll just keep getting better and so that no matter who we play, we know who it is,” said Strain.

For stats in the Raiders game against the Simley Spartans, Raiders running back Burow led the team in rushing yards with 107 on 14 carries. Arnold also completed 42 rushing yards on 12 carries, along with senior running back Brendan Freiemuth who completed 26 rushing yards on seven carries.

With the passing game, Arnold threw 15 passes with six of them being complete. Arnold totaled 104 passing yards for the game with three touchdown passes and two interceptions.

Reifenberger led the Raiders in receptions with three in the game, tagging along 62 yards on those passes. The other three passes were completed by junior wide receiver Rico Cooper, who ran for eight yards, Bezdicek who ran for 37 yards, and Payton Burow, who lost three yards on the pass he completed.

Raiders kicker Fillion was perfect in extra point attempts for the Raiders against the Spartans, going four for four.

The Raiders will play their next game this Friday night, September 24 against St. Thomas Academy for their second conference game of the season. The rivalry game will be in Mendota Heights and start at 7:00 p.m.

Ben Clemons has had a few opportunities to log his first interception of the 2021 season and he finally did with the help of John Chorlton’s tipped pass. Photo by Bruce Karnick

Payton Burow broke a 41-yard run for the second Hastings touchdown of the game in the third quarter. A combination of downfield blocking and Burow’s shiftiness were keys on this long play. Photo by Bruce Karnick