Raiders End Season as CYO 4th Place Team
With 138 teams in 16 conferences beginning football in September, finishing fourth is a momentous feat. The last two games saw more than the usual number of Raider miscues, but the foes were also much tougher. In addition, Sundays game was played in a persistant rainstorm. St. Rita was a finess team all year, relying primarily on the pass, but that option was greatly limited by the weather.
In Sunday's third place game, the Raiders led for all but two minutes. Unfortunately the two minutes were the last two of the game. St. Rita took a lead of 18-8 into the half, but failed to score again as the ball continually slipped through their hands. American Martyrs had similar difficulties, but managed to run for a pair of second half touchdowns to secure a 21-18 victory over us. Holy Family, who finished second to us in league, played an incredibly physical game to beat Beatitudes 20-12 for the CYO Championship.
For the season, the Raiders posted an outstanding 18-2 overall record. They were 9-0 in what turned out to be the toughest conference in CYO. They were also Champions of both tournaments they entered. They can also take pride in being the only team to repeat in the final four this year. In fact a few were in the final four an incredible 3 straight years as several B's moved up to varsity for the playoffs as 6th graders. Those boys finished second, third and fourth in CYO. We may not be happy with the last two outcomes, but for the season, 134 teams would like to have been us. Good Year Raiders!