After three straight victories for the Raiders that included two emotional wins, Robbinsdale Armstrong came to town and strong armed the Raiders 42-6. The loss dropped the Raiders to .500 at 3-3 with two games left in the season.

The Falcons offense is led by #1 Kevon Johnson, a 5’9” 170-pound senior running back. In the five games prior to Hastings, Johnson had 961 yards on 97 carries good for a 9.9-yard average. Johnson also accounted for 15 touchdowns in that same five game stretch.

If the threat of Johnson was not enough to worry about for Hastings, the Falcon’s quarterback, number 13 Dawnson Franke is their second-best attacker on the ground. Franke came into the Raider game with 326 yards on the ground, averaging 81 yards per game and 7.1 yards per carry.

Hastings quickly learned why those two players have led the Falcons to 5-0. After taking the opening kickoff to their own 33, the Falcons, well, Johnson went to work. Three rushing plays by Johnson later and the Falcons had the 6-0 lead and Johnson had 67 rushing yards. Armstrong then tried a surprise onside kick which Hastings was able to recover.

After three plays, it looked as though Armstrong was going to run away with the game, but Hastings punched back. Hastings took their first offensive possession at their own 48 and drove deep into the Falcon’s territory before the drive stalled at the 13. Hastings’ defense forced the Falcons to turn the ball over on downs at the Raider 41. This turned out to be the last time Hastings could stop the Falcons offense until the backups entered the game on the last Falcons drive of the game.

The Falcons scored on the next five possessions of the game with Hastings only score coming on an 80-yard kick return by Grant Birken with five and a half minutes left in the third quarter. Hastings pulled the onside kick out of the Armstrong bag of tricks and a Falcon player mishandled the ball, allowing Hastings to recover.

By the time the smoke had settled, Armstrong scored 46 points to the Raiders six. Hastings managed only 138 total yards of offense and for the first time this season, the air attack outgained the ground attack 77 to 61 yards. Armstrong ran for 360 yards, 220 by Johnson, 110 by Franke and both averaged 12.2 yards per carry.

If you follow high school football in Minnesota, leading into the game, you knew this game was going to be a challenge for the Raiders and things do not get any better the next two weeks. The Raiders will host St. Thomas Academy this Thursday, Oct. 10 at 6:30 p.m. The Cadets are not quite the powerhouse we are used to seeing, but they are still a very good football team. At 4-2, the Cadets have had several shared opponents with the Raiders. They took down Cretin-Derham Hall 24-6, dismantled Mahtomedi 52-7 and lost to Armstrong 20-14.

The final game of the regular season involves a trip to the other Robbinsdale team, Robbinsdale Cooper on Wednesday, October 16 at 7:00 p.m. Common opponents here are just Bloomington Jefferson, whom they beat 19-0 and Armstrong, where they lost 49-21.