HYDEN —
McCreary Central’s gridiron struggles continued on Friday night as the Raiders traveled to former UK great and Cleveland Brown quarterback Tom Couch’s Alma Mater Leslie County and suffered a 43-6 defeat to the Eagles.
Just as the prior week at North Laurel the Raiders fell behind quickly fell behind and were forced to try and catch up all evening.
Leslie scored on their opening possession just a minute and four seconds into the game on a 32-yard run.
After and three and out by the Raiders the Eagles struck quickly again with a screen pass to the left that would end up being an 82-yard touchdown pass which gave Leslie a 14-0 lead.
McCreary showed signs of being able to move the ball on the following possession as senior Noah Duncan picked up 16 yards on three consecutive carries to get the Raiders across midfield.
McCreary would end up having to punt four plays later and would then catch a break when it was ruled that the ball had made contact with a Leslie County player and Central had recovered the ball on the Leslie 15 yard line.
The Raiders good fortune was to be short lived however as on the first play a Dylan Cooper pass attempt was picked off and returned to the Eagle 22.
Leslie then went on a time consuming drive that included an 18 yard touchdown pass being called back for holding. The Raiders defense would then step up as Josh Gregory got into the backfield for a quarterback sack on third down and six from the thirteen yard line and then with Leslie going for it on fourth down and nine Raider linemen Corey Ball, Ricky Flannery and David Dunn combined to bring down the QB again, turning the ball over to Central on downs.
Again though the Raider offense could get no momentum going and after a nine yard loss on second down and an incompletion on third was forced to punt from deep in their own territory.
The Eagles would take over with tremendous field position at the Raider 37 and would convert that into their third touchdown of the game in just one play with a 37-yard completion which made the score 21-0.
Duncan would pick up 14 yards on second down of the Raiders following possession but a five yard penalty prior to the next snap would eventually lead to another punt on the following fourth down.
Both teams would have another empty possession before Leslie went on a 43 yard drive after having a punt return for a touchdown called back. Despite 20 yards in penalties after that the Eagles found their way to the endzone through the air with a 24 yard touchdown strike with 4:28 left in the half making the score 28-0.
Leslie would score again after a quick three and out by Central with a 70 yard drive that took three plays ending with their fourth passing score of the game making it 35-0 with 2:55 left on the clock.
Things would brighten briefly for the Raiders who would put up a quick scoring strike of their own before the half.
Starting from thier own 25 yard line Central lost a yard on first down and then five more on a penalty before the next snap before Duncan broke loose for a 19 yard gain out to the 38 yard line on second down. A five yard loss on the ensuing first down was followed up with an eleven yard loss on second down pushing McCreary back to the 23, two yards back from where they had started the possession.
The Raider sideline would be celebrating moments later though as Duncan again found some running room around the right side and weaved his way 77 yards for a touchdown with just :19 left before the half cutting the lead to 35-6 after a failed two point conversion attempt.
The Raider would not seriously threaten to score the rest of the game while the Eagles would get into the endzone just once in the second half to make the final score 43-6.
With leading rusher Arlis Dople missing his second straight start with an injury Duncan was called on to carry the ball 23 times and gained 127 yards despite being stopped nine times for a loss.
McCreary expects to have Dople back this Friday when the Raiders host Casey County in a game that will most likely decide the fourth and final playoff spot from the five team District.
The Rebels, like McCreary will come into the game at 1-4 after losing 69-29 at Fairview (just south of Ashland) on Friday. Casey lost at Taylor County 46-18 in the second week of the season after the Raiders had fallen 42-12 there to open the season.
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Raider senior Noah Duncan looks for running room behind the blocking of Josh Gregory Friday night at Leslie County. Chris Hollis
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