Syracuse Strong: Mother Nature intervenes again in Week 2 win vs Raiders

The Syracuse Strong got their second straight win in a shortened game. Here are all the details and who stood out at the Valley Sports Complex.

After a Week 1 shortened 26-6 victory for the Syracuse Strong, the players seemed ready to put in a full effort in Week 2.

Last week, the Strong quickly got off to a big lead and dominated throughout. Week 2 didn’t start off the same.

After losing the coin toss, the East Penn Raiders deferred to the second half, and Syracuse had their first crack on offense.

It was an awkward first series and it resulted in an unusual sight, the Strong having to punt the football. That’s where Syracuse encountered their first adversity of the season.

A break in punt protection on the right side of the formation resulted in a blocked punt being returned for a touchdown. Fortunately, the officials threw a flag on the play for a block in the back. But even the referees couldn’t stop the inevitable, which was a Raiders touchdown and the first deficit of the season for the Strong.

The Raiders used some stifling run defense to stop Rashad Burns early and often. After earning

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Player of the Game honors in Week 1, East Penn wasn’t going to get beat the same way the Charlotte Colonials were a week prior.

Rashad finished the game with 10 carries for 12 yards, a far cry from his efforts last week when he scored three touchdowns and nearly ran for a 100 yards.

Which means it was finally Jason Boltus time. When it became apparent that running the football wouldn’t be a viable option in this game, offensive coordinator James Tyler called for his quarterback to take over the game.

Jason threw three passing touchdowns to three different targets:

• Six-yard touchdown strike to Nic Barksdale (7-6 lead for the Strong).
• 25-yard touchdown drop right in the bucket from Boltus to LA (LaQuan Rouse) after a muffed punt by the Raiders (13-6 Syracuse lead).
• Then Jason Boltus notices a breakdown on the Raiders defense and finds Zavon Watkins for a wide-open 23-yard touchdown to put Syracuse up 20-6.

While the other score of the game involved the defense with a pick-six from No. 39 Wilquan Burke to make it 27-6 entering the half.

The Raiders looked lost and desperate, so they made a quarterback switch and suddenly got a spark on offense. After rolling with Jimmy Lahue in the first half, East Penn put a wide receiver at quarterback (Darius Wade).

Wade immediately brought mobility and a crazy cannon which resulted in a massive 40-yard strike down the left hash. But while a wide receiver can bring some juice, he can also bring some inexperience.

It appeared that Darius played a little too much Madden before taking actual snaps at quarterback. On a second and medium play, Wade tried to run around and make something happen, what ended up happening was a 30-yard loss on a crazy scramble play.

But before we could get much more of a look at the new quarterback rotation, we started to hear rumbling in the distance and saw a few glimpses of lightning. Which resulted in another delay (similar to the one we witnessed in Week 1).

After another 20 minute or so delay, the rain came pounding in and the referees once again called the contest early and awarded the Strong the victory. Week 1 and Week 2 for the Strong were nearly identical in the score (26-6 W1, 27-6 W2), the result (the game being called early in the third quarter due to a lightning delay), and now Syracuse is 2-0 on the season.

Syracuse has one more home game vs the Upstate Predators (Week 3) before taking the road for the first time this season in back-to-back weeks in weeks four and five.

The other top performers from this game include:

• Jason Boltus: 12-for-21 (57 percent completion percentage) for 139 yards and three touchdowns.
• Zavon Watkins: five receptions for 56 yards and a touchdown.
• LA (LaQuan Rouse): three receptions for 58 yards and a touchdown.
• Nic Barksdale: one reception for six yards and a touchdown.

I guess Mother Nature ended up being the mercy rule in back-to-back weeks to start the Syracuse Strong season. Although the main takeaway is the Strong faced adversity early in the game and responded by scoring 27 unanswered to win, this team is only going to get better as the season progresses.