Cottage Grove Football

Raiders fans had a fantastic day for football. The Raiders were leading most of their first game but in the end lost the game by 1 point to the Irish. The second game was advertised as a game for fun that had no meaning but didn't quite turn out that way.

The Strawberry Bowl had the Raiders come out scoring first on the legs of RB #7 Camden Cuttell to put the Raiders up 6 - 0. The first play by the Irish was a pass that was intercepted by #4 Braden Hanson. This was Braden's first pick of the season and  the teams second on the season. The Raiders then scored on a run by QB #18 Matthew Meduna to put the Raiders up 12 - 0. The Irish came back and scored a TD of their own to bring the score to 12 - 6. Raiders came right back on the legs of RB #7 Camden Cuttell to score another 6. QB #18 Matthew Meduna added the extra point to bring the score to 19 - 6. Before the half was over the Irish added another 7 points to give a hafetime score of 19 - 13.

The Irish came out after half and added another 6 to tie up the scoring. Then the Raiders came back again on the legs of RB #7 Camden Cuttell to go up by 6. To finish off the scoring and the game the Irish added a TD and extra point to give us a final score of Irish 26 - Raiders 25.

In the second game of the day the Raiders took on the Gophers in what was supposed to be just a fun additional game to try some different plays and do some different things. It didn't take long for the Raiders to find out the Gophers had no intentions of having a "fun" game as they came out with some very aggressive tackling that sent #7 Camden Cuttell to the bench with an injured leg and hard hitting from behind on QB #18 Matthew Meduna which sent him flying hard to the ground giving him a turf rash across his face.

The game started with No Coach for the Raiders on the field. Coach Meduna had made the decision that his son and QB #18 Matthew Meduna would make all the play calls himself on offense and MLB #7 Camden Cuttell would run the defense. The game started with the Raiders scoring the opening drive on a run by RB #7 Camden Cuttell. The Gophers came right back and scored to tie the game at 6. It was at this point in the game that the Raiders realized the Gophers were out for a very physical game. Coach Meduna told his team that as long as everyone was having fun he would not be changing players around and implementing any trick plays due to how the game was progressing. Meduna told the team the way to deal with an aggressive team is to put points on the board. That's when QB #18 Matthew Meduna called his own number and ran the ball 50 yards for the TD to go up 12 - 6. The Gophers came right back and added another 7 points to take the lead 13 - 12. The Raiders drove down the field within 5 yards of scoring again when the half was called with the Gophers ahead 13 - 12.

The second half opened with the Gophers scoring another 6 to go up 19 - 12. The next score was on the legs of RB #7 Camden Cuttell with QB #18 Matthew Meduna adding the extra point to bring the score to 19 - 19. The next score was again RB #7 Camden Cuttell adding 6 to bring the score to 25 - 19 with the Raiders in front. The Gophers were driving down to try to tie the score when on the last play of the game DE #88 James Hren got into the backfield and took the handoff himself and took it in for the score to close the game Raiders 31 - Gophers 19.

We caught up with coach Meduna after the game and asked for his comments, "The game plan against the Irish was to come out throwing the ball, something we had not done much of this year. The wind played a big factor and we were not very successful so we had to fall back on our running plays. Coach Blumberg did a great job with his team this year and it was a tough back and forth game where we just lost by 1 extra point. I think our team of boys did a fantastic job against a very evenly matched opponent. As far as the second game, I was very disappointed at how that game progressed. We were not looking to play our final game so aggressivly when it was supposed to be basically a scrimmage that meant nothing but for the boys to have some fun trying different plays. I don't think their coaches were on the same page with the intent of what that final game was about. I don't want to focus on the negatives of that final game as much as I want to focus on the positives. I had no idea that QB #18 Matthew Meduna would come out and call plays and run the offense so productivly. Many of the fans told me after the game that they didn't even realize that he was the one calling the plays. He mixed up the play calls and took charge of the team far better than I ever expected. I am also very proud of the play by #88 James Hren, on the final play of the game and the season he was able to get his first score of the season on a fantastic play. Many of the first graders are going to come back next year and be the stars of the league but for this year playing against a lot of second graders it was tough for a lot of them. I had a blast coaching this team they are a great group of boys."

Well Raiders fans that is all for this season, we look forward to next year.