Section Finals come to close with Raiders win again over Eagan

 
ST. PAUL, MN - The Cretin-Derham Hall Raiders will move on to their 20th State Football Tournament in their last 21 attempts. The Raiders (10-0 overall) came into tonight's Section 4AAAAA Football Final the #1 seed and the favorite over the #3 seed Eagan. The Wildcats have been close, but have never been to the state tournament. They also have been close to knocking off the Raiders at O'Shaughnessy Stadium in St. Paul, MN on the campus of the University of St. Thomas. In the 2009 Section Semifinal, Eagan was a 2-point conversion attempt away from the victory, but were held short for a 21-20 loss. This evening though, not even an injury to CDH's starting running back could keep them from the tourney.

The 1st Quarter of the game was scoreless between the two squads and was a close, hard fought game, after the Raiders kicked a 22-yard FG at the 9:59 mark of the 2nd Quarter to take the 3-0 lead. The scoring would pick up quickly from this point forward as on their next offensive possession, CDH would score on a James Onwualu TD on a pass from QB Connor Rhoda that was tipped by the Eagan defense, but would fall into Onwualu's hands about 20 yards downfield and then James would do the rest for a total of 48-yards on the play. With the extra-point by Zach Hagar, Cretin-Derham Hall would lead 10-0.

Feeling the pressure of the traveling fans and the scoreboard, Eagan senior quarterback Drew Bauer decided to take things into his own hands on the next Wildcat series. On the second play of the drive, Bauer ran off an outstanding 68-yard TD run, breaking tackles and out-running Raider defensive backs down the sideline. Eagan would miss the extra-point and trail 10-6 for the rest of the 1st Half.

Later in the half, Cretin-Derham Hall would lose their starting senior running back Kendrick Brewster to an apparent head injury and it would slow the offense of CDH and send them into the locker room with the four-point lead.

Subbing into the backfield for Brewster was WR James Onwualu, who was aggressive in the passing game, but was even better out of the backfield. Onwualu ended up running for over 130 yards and two more touchdowns in the contest. Onwualu had well over 200-plus all purpose yards on offense for the evening and was the driving force for the Raiders on the evening with TD runs of 87 and 26 yards respectively.

Eagan would get one more score in the contest against a stout and tough CDH defense. They had to get creative to score and it was a flea-flicker from Brew Bauer to wide receiver Mack Nelson, who then threw it down field for a 36-yard TD pass to senior tight end Eric Woodcock into the endzone for the score. The 2-pt conversion tried failed and the Eagan scoring was done for the evening.

The final score in the contest was 31-12 and the Cretin-Derham Hall Raiders will take on Lakeville North next Friday, November 11th at 5pm from the Metrodome on a game that you can hear right here on MnSportsNetwork.com. Eagan with the loss finishes their season a 6-5 overall and just could not get all components of their offense clicking against the strong CDH defensive front.

Players of the Game:
Eagan - QB Drew Bauer
Cretin-Derham Hall - WR James Onwualu