Raiders finish regular season undefeated

MAXWELL — Collins-Maxwell/Baxter’s Raiders made history under the Friday Night Lights.

The sixth-ranked Raiders recorded the first-ever undefeated regular season in the team’s history with its 37-0 win over Centerville’s Big Reds Friday at home. The Raiders had already clinched the Class 2A District 7 championship and a playoff berth.

Going 9-0 for the regular season is great but the work isn’t done for the Raiders. They host South Hardin in a Class 2A first-round game Wednesday. Kickoff is 7 p.m.

“I think it starts with our seniors. It starts with their non-selfish attitude,” said Rob Luther, CMB head coach, about the success of the Raiders this season.

“Like I said earlier we never had the disease of ‘me.’ We talked about being humble. It doesn’t matter who gets the next win, we’re going to play hard. We have great leaders. I’m really happy for our seniors and I’m really happy for all these kids who have done something that has never been done before.”

Senior Bryce Kemp got CMB rolling quick with an 88-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Kemp, who made six catches for 113 yards, had a 22-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Hunter McWhirter later in the game.

McWhiter was 13-of-20 passing for 186 yards and tossed his first touchdown of the night to Hunter Gunderson. Gunderson’s 10-yard touchdown catch and Joey Nissen’s extra-point kick had CMB up 14-0 at the break.

“The first half wasn’t our strongest. It might of actually been one of our worst starts of the season. With the halftime break, we got our stuff together. We basically gave it our all, got inspired, pumped up and did what we could to get more points on the board,” senior Jon Engle said. “I’ve never been in the playoffs in my four years. I’ve watched a few. It’s just a giant thing of emotions and feelings. It just feels awesome.”

CMB’s defense opened the second-half scoring with a safety for two points. Kemp caught a touchdown pass from McWhirter to push the Raider lead to 24-0.

The Raiders piled up 534 yards of total offense while holding Centerville to just 82 yards of offense.

Blake Coughenour, who had 70 yards on 13 carries, had a 1-yard touchdown run in the second half. Clayton Weltha, a senior lineman, lined up in the backfield and bulled over the goal line from one yard out for the final touchdown. Nissen kicked all the extra points for the Raiders.

“We needed that (a better second half of play). I don’t know if the win/loss was ever in doubt, but we didn’t want to limp into the playoffs. We didn’t want to look sloppy. So we really had a discussion at half and said let’s play a really good two quarters so we feel good about ourselves going into Wednesday,” Luther said.

Weltha had eight solo tackles and one assisted tackle to lead the Raider defense. Kemp had five solo tackles and a quarterback sack. Engle had a quarterback sack. Nick Littell recorded three unassisted tackles and two assisted tackles. Brady Stover had three solo stops.

Senior Mac Pohlman came up with the two turnovers for the game. He intercepted a pass and recovered a fumble for the Raiders.

“It feels good to be able to help the defense out, and get the offense on the field in a hurry to do what they need to do. My teammates kind of helped me out, put me where I need to be today,” Pohlman said.

“Home field advantage is going to be a big thing. We just need to work on fundamentals. We can’t have a first half like that. We need to play a whole game like our second half where we came out and dominated.”