The Pine Raiders football team overcame a bit of a slow start to outrun the Bogalusa Lumberjacks to the tune of 50-14.
The Raiders move their record to 6-3 overall and 2-2 in district. They will host the Springfield Bulldogs this week in the last regular season game of the season. The Raiders have secured a playoff spot and are still playing for better seeding and a likely home first round playoff game.
The Lumberjacks drop their record to 1-7 overall and 1-3 in district. The Jacks are near the cutoff line for qualifying for the playoffs and host 3-5 Albany this week with a possible playoff spot on the line.
The Raiders got on the scoreboard first as they used consistent runs by Von Johnson to move down the field to score when he went in from 13 yards out with 9:43 left in the first.
The Lumberjacks responded on their opening drive by scoring on a 57 yard pass play. They then decided to go for the two point conversion, which was successful, giving Bogalusa an 8-7 lead midways of the second period.
The teams traded punts until the Raiders scored on a Johnson 27 yard run with 11:54 in the second. Quarterback Trey Knight scored on their next possession for a 21-8 lead.
Delvonta Gardner caught a 25 yard pass from Knight to increase the Raiders lead to 28-8. The Lumberjacks scored just before the half on a two yard pass for a 28-14 halftime score in favor of the Raiders.
The Raiders increased the lead in the third period to 36-14 and made it 43-14 early in the fourth when Zach Thomas caught a 19 yard pass.
Bogalusa threatened on their next drive but stalled out at the Raider eight. The Raiders finished out the scoring with 3:20 left in the game for the final score of 50-14.
Pine coach Bradley Seal was satisfied with his team's performance against the Lumberjacks. "I'm happy with the way we played last night. I thought our offensive line controlled the game and that's what we preached all week. Defensively, other than one big play, we played well all night."
Trey Knight was 4 of 11 passing for 60 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for one yard and a touchdown. Von Johnson was the Raiders leading rusher with 106 yards and two touchdowns.
