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By John Glover
The Daily News

The Pine High School Raiders hosted the Avoyelles High School in the second round of the Class 2A Prep playoffs, defeating the Mustangs 35-20.
“Hats off to our defense. We knew it was going to be a war. They came out pounding and we just hit back,” said Pine coach Bradley Seal.
At the start, Avoyelles put a touchdown on the board on the first play of the game with a handoff from Jayreon Atkins to Jermaine Pierre. The Mustangs’ two-point attempt failed and set the score at 6-0 just 15 seconds into the game. Pine answered back 10 seconds later the first play of their first possession with a handoff from Logan Temples to Drake Westmoreland who took it 51 yards. Colton Graves’ kick was good and the score moved to 7-6 with 11:30 left in the first quarter. It took an 11-play drive by the Mustangs to take the lead back. Atkins handed off to Donnell Carter from the 5-yard line. Carter pushed through up the middle for the touchdown. The two-point attempt failed again and the score went to 12-7. With the next kickoff, Pine’s Adrianuen Johnson recovered the ball at the Raiders’ 45-yard line, pushed through, and ran the 55 yards for a touchdown. The kick was good and the score went to 14-12 and remained there at the end of the first quarter. It was the first of four total touchdowns for Johnson.
The Mustangs opened the second quarter with a touchdown handoff from Atkins to Carter. The two-point conversion was good with a handoff again from Atkins to Carter with the score going to 20-14. The Raiders answered back five minutes later with a four-play drive from the Pine 43 yard line. Temples handed off to Johnson from the 21-yard line, with Johnson up the left side for the touchdown. Graves’ kick was good and the Pine Raiders took the lead 21-20.
The Mustangs tried to answer back with a long drive from their own 23-yard line. With 15 second left in the half, Atkins passed to Carlos Bazert in the end zone. The pass was intercepted in the end zone by Anterrius Walker and the score at halftime remained 21-20.
The Raiders came out in the second half and, within minutes, put two touchdowns on the board. The first in their opening drive, which ended with a handoff from Temples to Johnson from the Mustangs’ 30-yard line. Johnson broke through up the right side and with Graves’ extra point kick, moved the score to 28-20.
Three minutes later, Temples handed off to Johnson again from the 14-yard line from the final touchdown of the game. Graves’ extra point was good and the score went to 35-20.
Defense also came out hard in the second half with all three of the Mustangs’ drives ending in a turnover on downs.
Seventh-seeded Pine advances to the quarterfinals to face second-seeded Many.