Two 7-1 teams met Friday night in Brentwood looking to go 8-1 before preparing for season finales against bitter rivals. The Oakland Patriots traveled to Ravenwood to take on the Raptors in a rematch of one of the more entertaining games of last season.
The game began with a flurry of uncharacteristic errors from the Patriots with some miscommunication on the kick return team, followed by a missed pass, a drop, and the ensuing punt being blocked and taken into the endzone for a Ravenwood touchdown. The Raptors capitalized on the momentum by surprising the Patriots with an onside kick that they recovered and less than five minutes into the game were looking to go up two scores. Oakland needed their defense, who so far in the season had only allowed a mind blowing 7.75 points per game, to settle things down as the Raptors looked to blow that average out of the water in just the first half of the first quarter. The Patriots defense stepped up and turned the Raptors over on downs, but the offense continued to make deadly mistakes as an underthrown ball was intercepted and taken back to the goal line. Davis Dowland finished it off on the next play and Ravenwood had taken a 12-0 lead (neither PAT was successful) in the first quarter over the Three-peat state champions. After both teams traded punts Oakland entered Raptor the and the first quarter came to a close.
As the second quarter began, Oakland’s offense capped off an imposing drive with an Ashton Jones touchdown run to make it 12-7 Ravenwood. After forcing a short punt from the Raptors, Oakland picked up where they left off by gashing Ravenwood with a physical run game, but finished their second touchdown drive off with a pass from Kyler Creasy to Chase Bandy to take their first lead and make it 13-12 Oakland after a failed two-point attempt. After forcing another punt Oakland extended their lead as Duane Morris took it over the goal line on the next play from just outside the endzone thanks to a massive punt return featuring a nasty stiff arm by Craig Tutt. After forcing yet another punt from Ravenwood, it was clear the Patriots defense had found their groove and the Raptors were paying for it in the form of points; 28 of them to be exact as Ashton Jones scored his second touchdown of the night and extended the lead to 28-12 with all 28 unanswered coming in the second quarter. Those were the last points scored in the first half filled with should’ves, would’ves, and could’ves, for Ravenwood and a furious regroup and response by the defending state champions.
The third quarter was completely quiet and it seemed as though no points would be scored as Oakland chewed clock and both teams traded punts, Until Craig Tutt picked off Femi Babalola near the Ravenwood 25-yard line and returned it to make the lead 35-12. That remained the score as we entered the final quarter as Oakland marched closer to be the team to advance to 8-1.
With just under nine minutes to go Ravenwood was able to end a long drive with a touchdown to cut the lead to 35-18 after a failed two point try. As time became a factor, It seemed that Ravenwood had done too little too late. There was a spark of hope as the Raptors intercepted Creasy with a chance to make it a 10 point game but gave it back to the Pats on the very next play with an interception of their own. With seven minutes to go and Oakland more than content to chew clock (and effectively picking up first downs while doing so) Ravenwood was out of time. As time expired Oakland added another score that you can watch below and our final score from Ravenwood was 42-18.
MVP
Our MVP of the game is Craig Tutt. Craig played on offense, defense, and special teams Friday night and made plays in all three phases. You can hear what he had to say after the game below.
