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DESPITE soggy field conditions early in the day, players made their way to the University of Guam football field yesterday morning for some gridiron action in the Guam National Youth Football Federation Mandikiki Division.

In the first game of the day, the GTA Teleguam Raiders and Tan Holdings Southern Cowboys squared off in a highly offensive game. At the end of the match, the Raiders notched a 49-42 victory over their opponents.

In the first drive of the game, the Raiders wasted no time and needed only two plays to post the game’s first points on the scoreboard. Carrying the ball from 48 yards out, Jamarion Santiago sped his way down the sidelines for a touchdown to give the Raiders a 7-0 lead. However, the Cowboys will not be discouraged and on their first attempt on offense responded with a TD of their own to equalize the game at 7-7. Jesse Taimanglo was credited with the monster production en route to the score.

The Raiders and Cowboys continued to pound the ball from the ground and would eventually add more points on the board only several minutes into the first half. Mario Murphy became the second Raider to convert a touchdown and did so after finding the end zone after a 19-yard run. Tan Holdings had plans to answer back and tie the game at 14-14 when Felix Manglona broke free from the Raiders' defense for a 40-yard touchdown run.

At the rate both teams were putting on a display of high offensive power, no one in attendance could guess which player was next to score.

Scoring melee

With a little more than half the clock burnt in the half, the quarterbacks from both teams got involved in the scoring melee. GTA Teleguam’s Kai Blas ran a quarterback keeper and managed to cruise past the goal line for a 38-yard TD run. To no surprise, the Cowboys duplicated the feat when Brian Perez received the ball from under center and converted a score of his own, making it a 21-21 game. Before the halftime signal was blown, several more touchdowns were tagged on by both teams, but it was the Raiders who clung on to a slight 35-28 lead at the break.

With so much offense put forth by both teams, it seemed as if neither had defense at the top of their game. However, on the first drive of the second half, the Raiders proved worthy on the other side of the ball as they forced the Cowboys to a quick four and out and a turnover on downs. Taking advantage of the turnover, GTA Teleguam upped their lead to two possessions after scoring a touchdown.

The Cowboys reduced their deficit to one possession later in the half after Perez ran for 35 yards to score his second TD of the game. With five minutes left in the game, the Raiders punched in a touchdown to give them a 49-35 lead. The final touchdown proved worthy as the Cowboys managed to add only one more before time on the clock expired to give the Raiders the victory.