MOBILE — For the second straight week, there was celebration as the final seconds ticked off the scoreboard — but this time the confetti thrown in the air came from the other team’s sideline as the B.C. Rain Red Raiders picked up their second win of the season, beating the W.S. Neal Eagles 40-21.
With the loss, the Eagles — who broke a 20-game losing streak last week on their homecoming night — fell to 1-6 overall and to 1-4 in region play while B.C. Rain improved to 2-5 overall and to 2-3 in region play.
For the Eagles Thursday, it was the same old story as it has been all year long: turnovers.
The stats saw the Eagles rack up 43 more yards than the Red Raiders and had eight more first downs, but the one glaring stat was the Eagles turned the ball over three more times than the Red Raiders. While B.C. Rain made no turnovers in the game to the Eagles, W.S. Neal had an interception and two fumbles. The interception and fumble were key plays in the game for the Eagles as it turned a 7-7 tie into a 20-7 lead for the Red Raiders.
The other turnover came at the start of the second half as no Eagle came up to catch the ball in the air and recover the ball on the ground and B.C. Rain fell on it to take control of the second half. While the fumble led to no Red Raider points, it kept the Eagle offensive off the field.
“Turnovers have killed us this year all year long,” W.S. Neal Eagle head coach Doug Hoehn said. “That is what hurt us tonight. Our team is playing hard, but turnovers killed us. Tonight, we did not play very good at all. We were flat. I don’t want to take anything away from B.C. Rain, their kids came out and played hard and their coaches did a great job. I give them all the credit. We just did not play well at all. We were just flat.”
B.C. Rain opened the game on a four-play drive to take an early 7-0 lead with 10:17 left in the quarter.
W.S. Neal responded with their own 11-play drive that saw a little trickeration to get the touchdown as quarterback Dylan Godwin passed to Ashton Elliott for a five yard gain who then pitched the ball to Marquese Banks who went the final 19 yards for a touchdown.
From there, things went downhill for the Eagles. After holding B.C. Rain to a punt, Godwin was picked off for an 87-yard interception return for touchdown to put Rain on top 13-7.
From there, the Eagles turned the ball over on downs, held Rain to a punt, but fumbled the ball and saw Rain score on their next series to go on top 20-7. Rain would add one more touchdown in the half to lead 27-7 at halftime.
Rain would score on their second possession of the third quarter to go on top 33-7 but W.S. Neal would cut the lead to 33-13 with 29 seconds left to play in the third.
Rain would later put the game away as they used a one-play, 74-yard score to go on top 40-13 with 8:09 left in the game. Banks would give the Eagles their final score on his third touchdown of the night as he scored on a 12-yard run, but the Red Raiders would get the win by 19.
W.S. Neal would finish with 360 yards of offense with 272 coming on the ground and 88 in the air. W.S. Neal had 96 yards rushing in the first half and 176 in the second while having only 11 yards passing in the first half and 77 in the second.
B.C. Rain had 317 yards of offense with 249 on the ground and 68 in the air. The Red Raiders had 103 yards on the ground in the first half and 146 in the second while getting 66 yards passing in the first half and 2 in the second.
Banks led the Eagles rushing as he had 227 yards on 34 carries and all three touchdowns. Banks now has had 526 yards on 59 carries in the last two games and seven touchdowns.
Godwin was 7-for-16 passing with 62 yards and one interception. Christian Purvis was 1-for-1 with 26 yards.
Ashton Elliott had four catches for 41 yards in the loss and Josiah Nettles added one catch for 21 yards and Keith Bradley had one catch for 26 yards.
W.S. Neal will travel to No. 1 Thomasville next week for another region contest.

B.C. Rain 40, W.S. Neal 21
At Ladd-Peebles Stadium

WSN- 7 0 6 8=21
BCR- 7 20 6 7=40

BCR-McCullum 33-yard run (Thompson kick)
WSN- Banks 19-yard run (Williamson kick)
BCR-Caldwell 87-yard interception return (kick failed)
BCR-Jackson 21-yard run (Thompson kick)
BCR-Fancher 35-yard run (Thompson kick)
BCR-Stoutamire 2-yard pass reception from Thompson (kick blocked)
WSN- Banks 3-yard run (conversion failed)
BCR- McCullum 74-yard run (Thompson kick)
WSN-Banks 12-yard run (conversion good)