Raider’s Homecoming Ends With a Win

PROTECTED CONTENT

If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.

Username

Password

Login

Lost your password?

Username and Password Help

Please enter your email and we will send your username and password to you.

Email

Submit

← Back

By Mary Schwanke

North Shelby played the Keytesville/Brunswick/Northwest Thunder for their Homecoming on September 30th. Crowd energy was high, with packed stands and fans lining both sides of the field. “The energy gets our kids going,” said Head Coach David Stuckey. “Our kids love hearing the crowd. We feed off of it. It’s just awesome.” The effects of the energy truly showed, with the Raiders outscoring the Thunder 78-12. “There were contributions all across the field. Everybody had a hand in this one tonight.” There was a significant amount of scoring diversity, with touchdowns scored by eight different players, and a generous amount of tackles for many players.

NS began the game on defense. The possession ended on a punt to the 32 yard line. They would force the Thunder to turnover on downs eight times throughout the game. A minute later, quarterback JD Rich passed the ball deep to Brendyn McDaniel, who literally hurdled the defense on his way to the end zone.

Immediately after NS got the ball back, Rich threw McDaniel another 46 yard touchdown pass, and the score was 16-0. Rich accumulated about 216 total passing yards in this game. He was named Mr. Football at the pep rally the previous night. Rich responds to praise humbly.

“We’ve got five seniors who all deserve the title. It’s nice to be Mr. Football, but I’m nothing special,” he said.

The Thunder broke loose and scored from the 45-yard line on the first down of their next possession. The conversion was no good, and the score became 16-6.

“We had to make some adjustments because Number 5 was pretty darn fast,” said Coach Stuckey.

“So the defense had to adjust to him and keep him contained. There were a couple formations we hadn’t seen, but we did a good job of adjusting.”

Casey Shockley scored next for NS, sprinting 55 yards down the field. “My favorite part of the game was seeing Casey run so fast,” laughed Rich afterwards. “It kind of surprised me,” he said jokingly.

Amos Fredrickson juked out the defense for 64 yards, scoring again. Next up to reach the end zone was Rich, who kept the ball for another touchdown. The score at the end of the first quarter was 40-6.

Coach Stuckey described how he got his team pumped before the game.

“We talk about how we’ve got big goals and how we can utilize this game to get better and reach our goals in November and December. We wanna play in December, so that was a question I asked them at the start of the game: are you gonna take advantage of this night to make a difference in December?”

Fredrickson scored his second touchdown, this one spanning 70 yards. The Thunder got close to their end zone, but were stopped short by Oren Vanskike’s fourth down sack.

Gabe Orr received a 29-yard touchdown pass. Then McDaniel got his third touchdown of the game. The score was 64-6 at the end of the second quarter. Zoe Barrick was crowned Homecoming Queen at halftime.

The rest of the game was played by NS JV with a running clock. Jade Daniel scored, Bo Bacon recovered a fumble, Harlan Gunnels caused a turnover with a fourth down tackle, Cole Browning made it to the end zone, and the Thunder scored with 27 seconds left in the game.

With a final score of 78-12, North Shelby’s long day of Homecoming spirit came to a close.

The Raiders will play another home game on October 7 against St. Paul, who are 5-1 on the season, having lost only to Orrick in week one.

This game will also be North Shelby’s Senior Night.