The Raceland Rams improved to 5-3 on the season Friday night with a 28-14 win over the Paris Greyhounds in the KSR Game of the Week. Raceland has now won 16 of the 18 matchups between the schools dating back to 1999.
Friday night’s matchup marked the first ever between the schools on Paris’ brand new orange turf.
It looked as if the Rams were going to run away with the game early, as Raceland capped off its opening drive with a five-yard rushing touchdown from sophomore Jonah Arnett. After almost immediately intercepting a pass thrown by Paris quarterback Julius Gregory, junior running back Shannon Marushi found pay dirt from five yard out to increase Raceland’s lead to 14.
The Greyhounds responded with a touchdown drive led and capped off by a rushing touchdown from Gregory, but the Raceland offense once again marched right back down the field. After being stopped on the Paris 40-yard line on third down, the Rams coaching staff decided to go for it; a move that was extremely risky.
They converted with a 35-yard pass from Parker Ison to move the chains, setting up Marushi nicely for his second rushing touchdown of the game. The junior is now up to seven on the season.
After combining to score four touchdowns in the first half however, offense dried up in the second half for both squads. Raceland forced a three-and-out to open the third quarter and extended its lead to 21 points on a Parker Ison five-yard rushing touchdown, but that would be all the scoring for the Rams.
Gregory threw a passing touchdown with just under two minutes remaining in the contest to cut the lead to 14, but the Paris comeback effort would come up short. Raceland ran the clock out to earn a 14-point win and put itself in the driver’s seat for a Class 1A District 6 Championship.
The Rams close their regular season against Nicholas County and No. 13 Lexington Christian, while Paris will play back-to-back away games against Fairview and Ludlow.
Raceland needs to win both of its remaining regular season games to get to at least seven wins in the regular season for the fourth consecutive season.
