For years, Atlee’s football team has had a less-than-fearsome reputation among its neighbors. Last year, though, the Raiders had a surprisingly strong start and inspired some talk of possible playoff contention this season.

  With the way the Raiders manhandled visiting Benedictine in their season opener, the talk of playoff contention will go on for a bit longer.

  Atlee took advantage of Cadet confusion and turnovers—with the defense scoring three of the Raiders’ six touchdowns—and drubbed Benedictine 42-7 Friday night.

  The Raiders (1-0) amassed 305 yards total offense, along with 118 yards in interception returns and another 22 yards in fumble returns. They were led by quarterback Drew Ferguson, who completed eight of 18 passes for 101 yards and one interception, and who carried the ball six times for an additional 45 yards. Running back Trevor Elie had 13 carries for 96 yards and two touchdowns. Defensive back R.J. Price had the marquee play of the night, a 101-yard interception return that gave Atlee a 21-7 lead with 3:43 remaining in the first half.

  Benedictine (1-1) picked up a respectable 191 yards total offense, with quarterback David Geary accounting for 103 of those yards in the air and another 73 on the ground, but turnovers—two fumbles and two interceptions—cost them dearly.

  Despite the victory, Atlee coach Roscoe Johnson was hoarse from hollering at his players during the night. The Raiders’ victory might have been even more lopsided if it weren’t for the 10 penalties for 106 yards called against them. Two of those penalties led to touchdowns being called back.

  “We had a lot of penalties. Normally I don’t get this mad,” said Johnson, who added that the Raiders picked up more penalties Friday than they had in the first six games last year. “I’m happy we won, but I’m pretty upset because of all the penalties we had. You can’t do that against good teams.”

  Benedictine had its problems, too. First was what seemed to be a lack of coordination. The Cadets used up all three of their timeouts in the first quarter as they found themselves with the wrong number of personnel or the wrong personnel lining up for plays. Then they had several players, including quarterbacks David Geary and Ben McSweeney, intermittently struggling with cramps and other injuries.

  As the pressure mounted, Geary—the starting quarterback—tried to force things. Those attempts to force plays to go their way led to things going horribly wrong, such as ending in two interceptions, both of which were run back for touchdowns.

  “We’ve got a good quarterback. He just tried to do too much tonight,” said Benedictine coach Greg Lilly. “We’re asking him to do a lot, too. He’s going to get better and better each week.”

  Both Geary and McSweeney were struggling with intermittent cramps, which Lilly attributed to the heat as well as Atlee itself by its control of the tempo.

  The Raiders did a good job of keeping the pace up because of one thing—conditioning. Johnson said the Raiders devote the last 30 minutes of each practice to getting in better shape.

  “We give them plenty of water, but they run,” Johnson said. “We will be in shape, but everything we do is fast-paced. That’s the way we practice, that’s the way we play. … We don’t have the best talent, but we’re going to be in shape. So when we get to the second half, we’re going to outrun you, out-gun you.”

  Atlee and Benedictine traded possessions for much of the first quarter, but the Raiders were the first team to score on a 22-yard fumble return by Thomas Pulisic with 1:50 remaining in the quarter. Joseph Pulisic converted the PAT. The Cadets responded quickly, scoring in little more than a minute on Geary’s 57-yard run. Geary kicked the PAT to tie the score at 7-7.

  After a Cadet punt early in the second quarter, Elie ran a two-play drive all by himself, running from Atlee’s 49 to the Benedictine 5-yard-line, then running the remaining five yards to give the Raiders the lead for good with 8:39 in the first half. Price’s interception return with 3:43 left all but sealed Benedictine’s fate.

  Atlee scored again on its first drive of the second half, this time on a 14-yard by Elie with 5:59 in the third quarter. Just seconds later, Cody Farrar intercepted a Geary Pass and ran it 17 yards for a score.

  The Raiders, flush with a lot of substitute players, scored the final time with 4:34 remaining in the game on a 7-yard run by Jarred Hall. Joseph Pulisic’s sixth PAT of the night made it 42-7.

  Despite the disappointing outing, Lilly is optimistic about Benedictine’s future.

  “We’ll be alright. Everything that we are about—military school, discipline, hard work, commitment and sacrifice for one another—we’ll get right back to work on Monday with those things and try to have an unselfish attitude.”

Benedictine…..............7   0   0 0— 7
Atlee ............................7 14 21 0—42
A — T. Pullisic 6 fumble recovery (J. Pullisic kick)
B —Geary 58 run (Geary kick)
A—Elie 5 run (J. Pullisic kick)
A — Price 101 interception return (J. Pullisic kick)
A—Elie 13 run (J. Pullisic kick)
A — Codi Farrar 27 interception return (J. Pullisic kick)
A—Hall 7 run (J. Pullisic kick)