Mid-Carolina fall 42-14 on homecoming against Keenan

PROSPERITY — The Mid-Carolina Rebels(1-8,1-4 region) tough season continued on Thursday night as they fell 42-14 on homecoming to the Keenan Raiders(4-4, 3-2 region). The two 2A region-4 opponents had a 7:30 p.m. kickoff time at Lon Armstrong Stadium.

Tyheim McNeil took the game’s opening kickoff 75-yards and set the Raiders up with great field position inside of the five-yard line. The took advantage and used their rushing attack to find the end zone on the very next play. They converted a two-point conversion and quickly had a 8-0 lead in the opening minute of the game.

The Rebels used their rushing attack to move the ball well on the first drive but it ended with Daniel Long throwing an interception.

The Raiders converted that turnover into points and quickly took a 14-0 lead. They then found their way into the end zone again early in the second quarter after the Rebels missed a field goal.

Late in the first half, the Rebels were finally able to make something happen. Zy Agnew almost scored on a long 60-yard kick return that put the ball inside of the red zone for the Rebels. They took advantage of the great field position as well and scored a touchdown on their first red zone trip of the night. Nolan Palmore scored a 15-yard rushing touchdown to get his team on the board.

The Rebels kept their momentum going by recovering a Raiders’ fumble on the kickoff. Unfortunately, their offense couldn’t make anything happened and turned it over after a failed fourth down attempt.

Marzavis Gallman recorded back-to-back sacks for the Rebels’ defense to prevent the Raiders from getting a late first half score, but his team still trailed 20-6 at halftime.

Keshon Williams started the third quarter with a good kick return to set the Rebels’ offense up with good field position coming out of the half. Long found senior tight end Connor Cromer for a 33-yard touchdown through the air to bring them within just one score (20-14).

The Raiders answered with a long touchdown drive to give them a two-score lead again as quarterback Desmond Washington did it himself with a 5-yard touchdown run.

The Rebels then put themselves in a deeper hole after Long threw a pick-six. They were outscored 22-6 in the second half.

“I felt like we played a lot better than the final score showed. We had a lot of great performances by guys and we continued to get better as the season went along. We just got to keep the momentum up during the game,” said Rebels head coach Chris Arnoult. “We let it get away from his in the second half. Keenan is a good team, super athletic and well coached. We just got to keep grinding, prepare ourselves and hopefully we can get into the playoffs. At that point every record is 0-0 and see what happens.”

The Rebels will face region opponent Eau Claire on the road in their regular season finale on Oct.27th.

As for the homecoming activities, Kirah Eigner was awarded 2023 homecoming queen. The varsity football cheerleader won the award a year after her sister won it in 2022. It was the first time in school history that two sisters won it in back-to-back years.

The full recap will be available in this week’s print edition on Wednesday, Oct. 25th.