By Joey Hudson
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | |
| Northfield | 14 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 31 |
| John Marshall | 0 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 14 |
The 1-1 Northfield Raiders traveled down to Rochester to take on the 1-1 John Marshall Rockets on Saturday September 16th. The Raiders were coming off a big 39-0 win over the Faribault Falcons, as JM was coming off a big win themselves, with a 44-0 win over North St. Paul.
The Raiders taking the field in their first game of the season against Mankato West, photo by Jim Wellbrock
The Raiders kicked off to start the game, JM went 3 and out, with an Owen Murphy tackle for loss, and a Daniel Worden sack. On the Raiders first possession, Kam Kaiser picked up a big first down, before Kaiser snapped off a 31 yard touchdown run on a pitch from QB Seth Thompson.
On JM’s next drive on 2nd and 5, the Rockets quarterback Savy Vath was sacked by Henry Webber for his second sack in two games. On the punt the Raiders gained possession on the 34 yard line, before Kaiser had another big gain bringing the Raiders up to the 50 yard line. On the next play Seth Thompson connected with receiver Jake Geiger. On 1st and goal from the 18 Thompson found Gavin Novotny to put them at first and goal at the 2. On 2nd and goal from the one Thomson ran a QB sneak to increase the Raiders lead to 14-0 after the PAT from Stephan Kallestad.
John Marshall’s next drive started out with a great return putting them at the Raiders 45 yard line. The Rockets drove down the field putting them at 1st and goal from the six yard line, but the Raiders defense held strong making the Rockets turn it over on downs when Gavin Novotny broke up a pass to the end zone. The Raiders took over the ball at their own 5, putting together an 11 play drive, capped off with a 58 yard receiving touchdown from Jake Geiger.
We weren’t able to show the video on stream during the broadcast so the replays suffered from that
On the Rockets next possession they benefited big from a pass interference from the Raiders, moving them from their own 26 to their 43. On 3rd and 10 from their 43 they had a big play for 43 yards on a pass to Zechariah Ladu. John Marshall was able to find the end zone on a nice pass from Savy Vath. The Raiders started off their next drive well, before being forced to punt after a penalty, bringing the game to halftime with the Raiders leading 21-7.
The Raiders received the second half kickoff with Kam Kaiser returning it, up to the 29 yard line. After a hold, on 2nd and 22 from the Raiders own 18 yard line Kaiser snapped off a 82 yard run to put the Raiders up 28-7.
John Marshall put together another strong drive on the kickoff, but the Raiders were able to force them to punt. On the Raiders next drive they drove down the field slowly with five first downs, before settling for a 27 yard field goal from Stephan Kallestad, increasing their lead to 31-7.
After John Marshalls next possession started off with a false start, the Rockets drove down and were able to score, cutting the deficit to 31-14. After Northfield recovered JM’s onside kick attempt they put together a solid drive, before a tip ball is picked off by JM. As John Marshall attempted to drive down the field Vath tried to find a receiver, the route was undercut perfectly by Junior Nick Johnson to seal the win for the Raiders.
Seth Thompson had a nice day at quarterback, completing 10 of 25 passes for 148 yards, a touchdown, and an interception off a tipped ball while also rushing for 12 yards on five attempts, with a touchdown on the ground. Jake Geiger led the receivers with 6 catches for 103 yards, including a 58 yard touchdown. Kam Kaiser had an electric day on the ground, running for 160 on 13 attempts, while also scoring twice, including a 82 yard TD run. The defense was led by Daniel Worden, who had two tackles, one for loss, and a sack, and John Newberg, who had four tackles and some good QB pressures.