Shaker Hts defeats Medina in a close one on Friday Night 22-21

Slow start to the Quarter for the Battling Bees who take precedence throughout 70% of the quarter on their drive. Which ends up close to their endzone but some stifling defense from the Raiders halts any momentum the Battling Bees had getting up the food. The Raiders opened their drive with a trick pitch/pass play.

Opening the drive like that showed the type of desperation they had coming into this game. The pass was caught and ran to the opposite 30-yard line but ended in a flag and ultimately sent back to the 15-yard line. The first quarter ended at 0-0, with neither team able to get any real leverage on the other. With both teams looking to get a win tonight badly, this did not surprise me. They were both playing hard and it showed in the first.

2nd quarter rolled around and things started at the same pace. Both teams trying to establish some type of ground. Penalties went both ways moving each team back and forth. Being able to watch both head coaches try to play chess with each other was also fun to see. The thing between these teams was that each team tried to get their pass game going and the Red Raiders started to strike the iron first with some rpo’s, getting good field position early in the 2nd and connecting with a touchdown on a QB scramble/run.

The Battling Bees took the run approach this quarter because the passing game just wasn’t there for them. The Red Raider’s were lockdown on that side of that ball. And The Battling Bees knew that. But not entirely because they threw an interception at the 3:07 mark in the quarter. The Battling Bees played some immaculate defense and got the ball back to score on a rushing TD with 15 seconds left.

3rd quarter opened up with the theme of the first 2. Both teams got the ball with no gain from each of their first drives. One interesting observation from The Battling Bees was how they switched up their approach. They opted to go with more rpo’s, similar to the Red Raiders. They also mixed some play action pass plays in there to further throw the defense off but still could not find a way to score.

The Red Raiders caught and took the punt to the 50 yard line. Where they connected on multiple trick plays and then scored once again on a broken up play where the Battling Bees played great defense but was not cohesive enough to stop the difficult yet elite pass for the Touchdown. The Bees got the ball back and just when they started to get some momentum in the 3rd, The Raiders secured another pick and took it to the end of the quarter.

The 4th quarter was a pure chess match. Both teams stopping one another from doing anything until late in the 4th when the Bees picked up steam and made multiple successful passes to a successful touchdown drive. The score was 14-14 either way 4:36 to go and everyone in the stands could not wait to see what the Raiders had in return. Was it going to OT or were the raiders so locked in that they prevented that from happening? The answer to the question would be no. The Raiders threw what was almost a pick 6. It turned into an eventual touchdown from the 6 yard line. This made the score 21-14, giving the Bees the lead- with them scoring 14 points in 4 minutes.

A wild turn of events in what looked almost grim for the bees, turned into a 7 point lead. A drive down the field by the Red Raiders looked promising as they reached the 15 yard line and was ultimately successful with the comeback drive while also going for the 2point conversation and clutching the game on a screen pass. An amazing game to see from two teams who put it all on the line. Final score 22-21, Red Raiders.

The Shaker Heights Red Raiders move to 3-6 as the Medina Battling Bees drop to 2-7 in a heartbreaking loss. In one of the best games that I’ve covered this season, there was a lot of emotion and spirit on that field and it was a pleasure to cover this one!