Raiders End Regular Season on A High Note at Home
May 20, 2013 - Ultimate Indoor Football League (UIFL)
Lakeland Raiders News Release
The Lakeland Raiders, now 6-3, defeated the Missouri Monsters, 59-7 at home to advance towards playoff play.
"We have a game probably two weeks from now. We won our tenth win at home in two years, so we're going 10 out of 13 games at home; we're doing well at home," head coach and offensive coordinator, Michael Mink said.
Jason Harmon started out scoring from the Missouri 7 to give the Raiders a quick lead of 6-0 with 11:50 remaining in the first quarter. Troy Johnson picked up a fumble on the Monsters next possession to score a defensive touchdown with 10:22 on the clock. Quarterback, BJ Hall, passed to Josh Smith to compete the following two-point conversion and further the Raiders lead to 14-0. On a third and five attempt, Hall connected with DeAndrew Rubin for a gain of 35 yards to score 22-0 with 4:30 left in the first. On a third-and-11 Monster pass, Eddie Umeh intercepted the ball and ran the ball 30 yards to score with 0:00 left in the first quarter. The Raiders completed the following two-point conversion with a pass to Roderick Jefferson to bring the score to 30-0 at the start of the second quarter.
The Raiders scored an additional touchdown and added points to the board by getting a safety by the half, leading the Monsters 41-0.
Hall connected with Jefferson on the Raiders first possession of the second half to score with 8:41 left in the third quarter, bumping the Raiders lead up to 47-0 after an incomplete pass thwarted an extra-point attempt. On a first-and-10 attempt on Lakeland's 16, Hall connected with a receiver to boost the Raiders to 53-0 with 5:18 remaining in the game. The Raiders scored once more before Missouri would finally follow up. A three-yard run would post their only touchdown for the night, landing them at a score of 59-6 with 3:13 left in the fourth. The score stood to the end of the game.
By the end of the game, the Raiders team went from six possible linemen to four, after injuries and ejections of two players. "We had one ejection where our player went high on a guy; we have to look at the film and see if that happened or not. If he did something illegal and the film shows it, then he should have been ejected," Mink said.
Quarterback Hall returned to the Raiders this week after having a contract in the works with the Orlando Predators. "I got an offer to play with the Predators, but when I got up there and into the position, they already had a veteran in the spot. I decided coming back to the Raiders was my best decision," Hall said. He plans to pursue his dream of making it to the NFL, and is talking to some teams about career opportunities higher up in the football order.
The Raiders move forward to playoff season. "[Playoffs] are win or go home, so we have to be ready to play at playoffs," Jason Harmon said after the win.
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Ultimate Indoor Football League Stories from May 20, 2013
- Raiders End Regular Season on A High Note at Home - Lakeland Raiders
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