Sallie helps lead Raiders to come-from-behind victory

Billy Sallie and Jordan McGee ran and spun around the field as Wells took an 18-point lead.

Slowly, Austin crept back before the Raiders closed out the game with an 18-16 win last Friday in an Inter-City Central game.

Sallie rushed for two touchdowns, gaining 105 yards on 12 carries while McGee also ran for a touchdown guiding the offense in Mashaun Pringle's absence. After moving from fullback to quarterback, McGee will start again this week after a rushing for 10 carries and 85 yards.

Still the Raiders (2-2, 2-1) seemed like they should have a bigger lead.

"Even though we controlled the ball, there was a couple plays we never ran right in the first half," Wells head coach Greg Konieczko said. "We had a couple opportunities in the first half that we squandered. McGee did a good job leading, he didn't crack under pressure, and a couple of times he made something happen out of nothing. That's a good start there, but hopefully he won't be so jittery this week."

In the third quarter Wells widened its lead when Ronald Pickett caused a fumble on a sack and Juan Oropez recovered for the Raiders. Sallie took the ball 20 yards down to the one and scored on the next play for an 18-0 lead.

Then the Raiders new spread offense attack disappeared as Austin (0-4, 0-3) made a big pass and another run to bring the score to 18-16.

"We kind of lost our focus offensively," Konieczko said. "We've got to correct the offensive line, execute blocks better, and fire off the ball. It's not clicking right now; it's sputtering and needs to be tuned up. Players need to take the responsibility and step up."

With two minutes left in the game Austin drove down into the red zone and up to the goal line. The Raiders' defense stepped up and forced a turnover on downs at the three-yard line. Yet they got the ball back and scored on a slant, and then tried to onside the ball, but Wells recovered and ran out the clock.

Wells plays Roosevelt, 11 a.m. Saturday for its homecoming at Jorndt Field.

The Bengals (7-1, 2-0) took first place in the St. Gregory Invite last weekend by going 4-0 in the two-day tournament. St. Benedict took on Francis Parker in the championship match last Saturday and fell 23-25 in Game 1. But they rebounded and won the next two games 25-13, 25-12 to capture the championship.

Leading the way for the Bengals were senior Ayo Avery (33 kills), junior Adriana Kowalski (27 kills), senior Erin Lahti (47 assists, 36 service points, 14 aces) and senior Christine Collier (25 assists, 60 service points, 14 aces).