In a first quarter blitz, John I. Burton scored 53 first half points en route to a 65-16 victory over Unaka on Friday night at Goddard Field on Ranger Homecoming night. Sophomore tailback Tyree Bolling ran for 175 first half yards and four touchdowns as the Black Raiders totaled 282 yards of offense in the first half.

Bolling scored on runs of 10, 34, 55 and 30 yards running behind a mammoth offensive line and the Raiders also had a 30-yard touchdown run by Austin Lane and junior quarterback Andrew Cavins tossed a 33-yard scoring pass to Jacob Branham.

“We had a game like this in our opening game,” Raiders head coach Jim Adams said. “It was a one-point game until we started turning the ball over and we got smacked. Tonight the turnovers went our way. Let me tell you though, we weren’t as bad as we looked in our losses and not as good as we looked tonight.”

The Rangers – aided by four Burton penalties – put together a touchdown drive of 70 yards in which junior quarterback Blake King hit freshman Nick Bowers with a six-yard scoring pass and then connected with Dakota Gallimore on the two-point conversion.

King completed 10-of-23 passes for 63 yards in the first half with two interceptions. For the game, King finished 13-for-27 for 96 yards and two scores. The Rangers run game was absent once again being held to zero yards on nine tries.

“I don’t know what else to do except to keep on chugging,” said Rangers head coach Steve “Pink” McKinney. “We have tried just about everything we know. They ran it straight at us and ran well on sweeps, and we didn’t tackle. On offense our forte is we throw it pretty well. I have to give these kids credit for coming out here every week and practicing hard every day. The only thing we can do is keep going.”

King tossed a six-yard scoring pass to Blake Isaacs as the third period came to a close and found Gallimore for the deuce to make it a 53-16 game. The Raiders closed out the scoring on a 12 yard run by Tyson Niece early in the fourth quarter.