Raleigh head coach Ryan Higdon wanted two things from his Lions tonight. That was to start fast and finish strong. He got that in a big way as Raleigh defeated Crystal Springs 48-14, notching their first region win of the season.
Suntarine Perkins made his presence known early in the game as he found a seam to the right side inside the 10, putting the Lions on the board early 7-0 after the PAT.
Jay Jones and Ladarrius Keyes got in on the action with 2:52 left in the first quarter as Jones found Keyes on a touchdown pass to go up 13-0. The PAT was no good.
Crystal Springs responded quickly as Johnnie Daniels returned the ensuing kickoff to the house, tightening things up 13-6. Their two-point try was no good.
The Lions poured it on in the second quarter, scoring 27 points as Suntarine Perkins scored twice, once from four yards out and another from 15 out, a 25-yard pass that featured Jones and Keyes again, and a 47-yard scamper from Keyes with less than a minute remaining in the first half.
"Our guys on offense were tremendous. They allow us to do a lot of stuff offensively," said Higdon. "We threw the ball well tonight. Coming in, we had been ground-and-pound, very conservative in the second half with my play-calling. I told this week though that I wanted to come out firing on all cylinders. We wanted to throw the ball tonight and we were able to do that."
When the halftime whistle sounded, the Lions had a commanding 41-6 lead over the Tigers.
Raleigh opened up the second half as hot as the first when on the second play from scrimmage, Jones found Margro Perkins for a 65-yard touchdown pass to take a 48-6 lead.
The only other score of the night was a Crystal Springs touchdown pass and successful two-point conversion to bring the final to 48-14
What's next
Raleigh moves to 3-3 and will continue region play with an away contest against Yazoo County. The Tigers fall to 3-2 and will play host to McLaurin next Friday.
