By Christopher Shaban
Correspondent
CLAREMONT — The Lebanon Raiders marched into Claremont with a perfect season on the line and left with a big win over Stevens, 42-7 on Friday.
Lebanon’s first touchdown drive lasted 10 minutes but their next score only took them 10 seconds. A Stevens fumble on their first play was scooped up by Wade Rainey for his second touchdown in only a few seconds to put Lebanon ahead 13-0.
“That was a big play for us. We took all the momentum and kept the pressure on,” said Lebanon head coach Chris Childs.
That momentum would roll all the way through the first half as Lebanon had a comfortable lead, 28-0. Philip Mellish blasted for a 19-yard run for a TD while Johnathan Willeman was untouched for his TD. The Cardinals’ Keaghan McAllister was held to only 27 yards rushing on nine attempts in the half as Lebanon had the shifty senior running back on their minds.
“Everyone knows about Keaghan and we expect other teams to try and stop him,” said Stevens coach Paul Silva.
Stevens opened the second half looking to put points on the board as Owen Taylor connected with Lucas Mudge for a 13-yard pass play. McAllister ran the ball for six of the next seven plays before he was stopped inches short of a first down with the Cardinals’ deepest drive of the game down to the Lebanon 30-yard line.
The Raiders didn’t throw the ball once in the second half and let the two-headed running monster of Mellish (3 for 14 yards) and Rainey (6 for 59 yards) add to the Lebanon lead. Rainey’s 22-yard scamper made it 35-0 after three quarters.
“This team has so much heart that they just won’t quit,” said Silva as the Cardinals put together a 52-yard drive to get on the score board.
McAllister carried seven more times for 41 more yards and a TD as he broke the 1,000 rushing mark on the year.
Mellish closed out the scoring on the night with a 15-yard TD run for the final 42-7 score.
“Our goal this season was to host a home playoff game and with tonight’s win we are guaranteed just that, but we are not satisfied yet, we still have a few more things we want to accomplish,” said Childs after the game.
Stevens now stands at 5-2 and will head to face Trinity (5-1) next Saturday for a 7 p.m. game while Lebanon (7-0) will host one-win Interlakes-Moultonborough next Friday at 7 p.m.
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