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In front of a sparse home crowd on Sept. 26, the Raiders won their first game of the season, holding off the Bridgeport Mustangs, 21-20.

“Great team win for the Raiders,” Raider Head Coach Steve Files said. “We were tough, resilient, and opportunistic out there.”

The Raiders saw a great improvement in the play up front with the return of senior Octavio Alejandre to the offensive line. The improved line play helped Jesse Louie and Oscar Pakootas to solid runs on the first offensive drive that was capped with a Josiah Desautel 17-yard touchdown run. With Alejandre’s kick the Raiders had their first lead of the season.

On the ensuing drive, the Mustangs chewed up the rest of the first quarter and tied the game at 7 all.

In the second quarter, Nathaniel Hall connected with Jacob Palmer for a great downfield reception. The Raiders turned the ball over to the Mustangs, who became mistake prone, accruing unnecessary penalties and fumbles.

LR struggled to take advantage of those mistakes as the offense slowed down. In one case, the official was watching the pile and failed to see Nathaniel Hall running downfield with the ball. The inadvertent whistle cancelled a good gain and led to a turnover on downs for the Raiders.

Later in the second quarter, LR was facing a fourth down at midfield. Hall bootlegged right, and, being unable to find an open receiver downfield, kept the ball, picking up the first and some more. A few plays later, Josiah Desautel broke through two tacklers on the way to a 32-yard touchdown run. The score at half stood at LR 13, Bridgeport 7.

Bridgeport received the ball to start the second half and proceeded to drive the ball down field to score, chewing up eight-and-a-half minutes of the third quarter. LR fumbled on the next possession, giving Bridgeport the chance to score again and place the Raiders in a tough predicament. The score at the beginning of the fourth quarter was Bridgeport 14, LR 13.

The Mustangs began to move the ball methodically down the field eating up clock. When the ball came loose and out of the pile, Palmer came up with the ball. Raider hopes surged, as Hall and the offense marched down field. It was then that Desautel broke loose for his third touchdown of the night on a 46-yard run.

The kick would put LR up by six, but the Raiders decided to go for two. Nathaniel Hall took the snap and bulled his way in to put LR up 21-14.

Bridgeport was not done. They quickly passed down field and looked to score when Mathew Pakootas forced a fumble that appeared to have sealed the win. But in less than a minute of game time, Bridgeport got the ball back and scored.

With the scoreboard showing 21-20, the Mustangs lined up for the two-point conversion and the win. The crowd seemed to hold its breath for the outcome of the next play. The Raider defense dug in and held the Mustangs out. Final score was LR 21, Bridgeport 20.

“Our defense really stepped up, forcing and recovering four fumbles and denying Bridgeport’s two-point try at the end of the game,” Coach Files said.

Matthew Pakootas and Hunter Chapman forced one fumble each, with Jesse Louie forcing two. Oscar Pakootas and Jesse Louie each recovered one, with Jacob Palmer recovering two.

Coach Files said the team’s performance was “our best effort of the season by far,” noting, “we still have many areas of our game that we need to improve on.”

Now the Raiders look ahead to the opening of the Central Washington 2B South League schedule with this week’s opponent, Warden. On Friday the Raiders will travel to Warden to take on the 2-2 Cougars in a 7 p.m. game at Warden High School.

The Cougars defeated Tonasket 39-35 in the first week of the season and edged past Wahluke 20-14. Last week Warden was soundly defeated by 1A River View (Kennewick) 40-14.