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They took on the Tate Aggies in Pensacola on Dec. 2.
Despite taking 21 shots to just four for Tate, the game ended in a scoreless tie.
The following night, the Raiders were back in Pensacola to face Pine Forest. This game had a much different result and included a bizarre twist.
It didn’t take long for the Raiders to get on the board. Malone Doughty scored just over a minute into the game. Four and a half minutes later, Doughty assisted on a goal by Jonah Cruz that gave Navarre a 2-0 lead.
Doughty picked up his second and third goals just three minutes apart before the first water break.
At the 23-minute mark, Mitch Hagood made the score 5-0 after taking a pass from Cruz. Cruz netted goals six and seven in a span of less than two minutes and the only question was when would the eighth goal come and end the game.
With 10 minutes left in the half, Doughty scored goal number 8, his fourth of the night. However, Raiders goals were coming so fast and so often that the officials couldn’t keep up. Somewhere along the way they missed a goal and as a result Navarre recorded a rare 9-0 victory when Nate Schroeder put the Eagles out of their misery early in the second half.
Navarre 8 Milton 0
The Raiders were missing five starters when they traveled up Highway 87 last Friday night to take on Milton. That fact certainly didn’t help the Panthers cause.
Cruz started the scoring barrage just over five minutes in. Cruz picked up goal number two when he one touched a Doughty pass with about 12 minutes gone in the game. Five minutes later, Doughty outmaneuvered a defender and flicked a shot into the corner of the net to give the Raiders a 3-0 advantage.
With 3:36 left in the first half, Cruz picked up a loose ball near the midfield circle, raced in uncontested and fired a shot over the outstretched hands of the Milton goalie. Morgan Richard closed out the first half scoring with about two minutes left when he picked up a rebound off a Cruz shot and punched it in.
Nate Schroeder made the score 6-0 early in the second half when he took a pass from Matt Dunham and beat the goal keeper with a nice left-footed shot. Cruz and Doughty hooked up again with about seven minutes left in the half. Doughty crossed a ball on net and Cruz was in perfect position for the header to make the score 7-0. It was Cruz’s fourth score of the night.
Two minutes later, history was made.
Amuia Alford, normally a goal keeper, was pressed into action on the pitch due to the shortage of Raiders in uniform. After several near misses earlier in the half, Alford was awarded a penalty kick. He buried the shot, the first goal of his high school career, to end the game.
Milton never really threatened and got off only one shot in the game, which Mason Goodnough deflected harmlessly out of bounds.
Navarre improves to 8-1-3 overall and 5-0-1 in the district. If they win at home over Crestview on Dec. 15, the Raiders will wrap up the number one seed for the district tournament in late January.
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