Raiders post 20 in second half to cruise to win

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, November 12, 2002

After a lackluster first half, the Shelby Academy Raiders scored 20 second half points to defeat Lakeside 20-0 and move on to round two of the Alabama Independent School Association (AISA) playoffs.

Ryan Elm scored two touchdowns and twin brother Andrew scored another to lead the Raiders offensively.

Ryan Elm rushed 10 times for 72 yards. Mike Childress rushed 9 times for 49 yards.

Defensively, Childress recorded 10 tackles while Jason Stokes had 9.

&uot;We didn’t play very well in the first half at all,&uot; said Shelby Academy head coach Dewayne Kervin. &uot;They (Lakeside) played us very physical which surprised our players. It didn’t surprise me, though. We were fortunate it was tied 0-0 at the end of the first half.&uot;

The Raiders gained 204 total yards on the night and allowed Lakeside 164 yards total offense. The Raiders got the bulk of their total &045; 148 yards &045; on the ground. Andrew Elm completed 4-of-9 passes for 56 yards.

Lakeside gained all but 8 of its yards on the ground.

One big difference in the game going the Raiders’ way was turnovers. Lakeside threw 3 interceptions and fumbled once. Shelby Academy committed no turnovers.

&uot;They fumbled a punt in the third quarter around their 30-yard line, and we took advantage of that and scored,&uot; Kervin said. &uot;That was a big turning point in the game. From that point on we gained composure and got a lot of confidence.&uot;

As for the lackluster performance in the first half, Kervin said that is something his team has battled all season.

&uot;We are still showing our youth,&uot; Kervin said. &uot;When they play a team they think they should beat, they don’t play well. That happened to us in the Demopolis game. On the other hand, when we play a team we know we will struggle with, we seem to get intimidated. It seems to be a real fine line between the two.&uot;

Up next for the Raiders is a very tough Jackson Academy team. Shelby Academy will travel more than three hours to make the trip to Jackson, which is about 15 or 20 minutes north of Mobile.

&uot;It’s going to be a long trip,&uot; Kervin said. &uot;Hopefully that won’t affect us too much.&uot;

Jackson is 9-2 on the season, losing its opener to Lakeside 14-13 and losing its last game of the regular season to 3A Clark Prep.

&uot;It will be a tough matchup for us,&uot; Kervin said. &uot;They (Jackson) have gotten better every week. Two things concern me the most. No. 1 is their quickness on defense. No. 2 is the fact that they run off the veer and they read every dive. We like to swarm the ball and not play a lot of one-on-one defense. However, you can’t do that against a true option team like Jackson. It’s gonna be tough.&uot;

Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m