Raiders dominate first game of season

The Friday-the-13th, full-moon home game season opener for the Raider football team proved to be lucky, with Cameron St. Pierre turning into a teen wolf and rushing for 274 yards and five touchdowns to help carry Lake Roosevelt to a 54-14 victory over the Oroville Hornets.

"What a fantastic start to the year," Coach Tim Rasmussen said. "The kids went out, and we did a lot of good things. One of the things I love about this group is how much fun they have competing every single down."

The game belonged to the Raiders from the beginning, with quarterback Hunter Whitelaw throwing an 11-yard touchdown pass to Sam Wapato to put the first points on the board, followed by a two-point conversion run from St. Pierre to put the Raiders up 8-0.

On the following kickoff Oroville fumbled the ball, and LR recovered. St. Pierre then got his first touchdown run of the game, putting the Raiders up 14-0.

Still in the first quarter, a Raider interception led to another touchdown pass to Wapato in the corner of the endzone to wrap up the first quarter with a 20-0 lead.

More fumble recoveries from the Raiders and three more St. Pierre touchdown runs built the Raider's lead to 41-0.

"Our defense was swarming," Rasmussen said. "We caused six turnovers in the game. I can't say enough about how great of a team performance we had."

"Cam had an outstanding night," Rasmussen continued, talking about St. Pierre's performance at running back. "And he doesn't have that without all the linemen working their tails off and guys blocking down field."

Oroville worked their way down field and got on the board with a touchdown pass to make the score 41-7 at the end of the first half.

In the second half, Raider Trevon Johnson forced a Hornet fumble to get the ball back in LR possession. This led Whitelaw to connect with Wapato again for a touchdown, putting the Raiders up 48-7.

Another St. Pierre touchdown run put the Raiders up 54-7, and another Oroville touchdown with five minutes left in the fourth put the final score at 54-14.

"Overall we're really pleased with how we started the year," Rasmussen said about the season-opener victory.

The Raiders' next game is on the road against Lind-Ritzville-Sprague at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 20.

Passing: H. Whitelaw 8/15, 120 yds, 3 td; B. Egbert 1/1, 8 yds

Rushing: C. St. Pierre 20 att, 274 yds, 5 td, 75 yd long; T. Whitelaw 2 att, 12 yds, 6 yd long

D. Hobrecht 1 att, 2 yds

Receiving: D. Hobrecht 4 rec, 82 yds, 35 yd long; S. Wapato 3 rec, 37 yds, 3 td, 15 yd long; C. Clark 1 rec, 8 yds; C. St. Pierre 1 rec, 1 yds

Defense: C. St. Pierre 1 int; S. Vargas 1 Int, 1 fum; J. Schmidt 1 fum; T. Jordan 1 fum; X. Ostenberg 1 fumble