The Laurens Raiders dominated the Greer Yellow Jackets on both sides of the ball to claim a 34-6 win and wrap up non-region play on Friday night at historic Dooley Field.
Greer falls to 3-2 overall and will travel to Sirrine Stadium next Friday to face the Greenville Red Raiders. Laurens improves to 3-2 overall and will open region play next Friday at home against the Westside Rams.
The Raider defense did not allow the Yellow Jackets to find the endzone. Greer’s six points came off two field goals by Parker Burns, one from 24 yards and the second from 32 yards.
Isai Fernandez paced the Raiders defense with two sacks and a forced fumble. Grayson Forsyth and Kevin Bryson each recovered fumbles for the Raiders.
Burns’ first field goal gave Greer a 3-0 lead after an opening drive that consumed much of the first quarter.
On their first drive, Laurens drove the ball down the field and Logan Bragg scored on a 7-yard run. After a missed PAT, Laurens led 6-3 and would never relinquish that lead.
With a little trickery, the Raiders added to their lead on their first possession of the second quarter. A double reverse pass that featured a Travion Robinson to Brayden Patterson handoff of then Patterson hitting Quinton (Q) Watts with no Yellow Jacket within 30 yards of him for a touchdown pass. After a Diego Angeles PAT, the Raiders led 13-3.
Laurens opened the second half with a scoring drive that was set up by a 78-yard pass from Bragg to Kaleb Gilchrist to the Greer 1-yard line. Robinson took it in on the next play to increase the Raiders lead to 20-3.
A Burns field goal narrowed the margin to 20-6 in the third quarter but that would be all of the scoring the Yellow Jackets could muster.
Laurens dug deep into their bag of tricks again with 3:32 to play in the third. Facing a fourth down punting situation, Jace Campbell took the direct snap on the fake punt and rambled 39 yards to the endzone. Another Angeles PAT gave the Raiders a 27-6 lead.
Greer fumbled the ensuing kickoff and the Raiders set up shop in Yellow Jacket territory. Laurens drove it down to the Greer 4-yard line, when Bragg threw an alley-oop pass to all-state basketball player Q Watts in the corner of the endzone for a touchdown. An Angeles PAT ended the scoring at 34-6.
For Laurens, Bragg ran for one touchdown and threw for another. Watts added two touchdown receptions. Robinson ran for over 200 yards and scored one touchdown.
