Rain began to fall hard as Navarre’s football team walked off the field stinging from a 40-17 loss to Pine Forest, the cold eyes of an 0-2 start staring right at them.

This wasn’t the way the Raiders had hoped their trip over to Pensacola would go here Friday night at Lon R Wise Stadium, especially a game against a team now coached by former long-time assistant Tony Carter.

Navarre is hoping for a bounce-back win Friday night when it travels to Pensacola to take on Pine Forest.

The Raiders are coming off a 34-27 overtime loss to Catholic and are gearing up for a game that will have an interesting storyline to it.

The conversation with New York Jets running back Michael Carter in a post-practice phone interview hits on a variety ot topics, shifting directions often as a window opens up to not only the topic of football but to the life around a game that is also very much a business here in the NFL.

Connor Mathews sat on a bench in the football fieldhouse late Friday night cutting tape off his ankles, the sting of a 34-27 overtime loss still fresh on his mind, the look of disappointment mixed in with the sweat on his face.

Mathews, running with all-out effort, often plowing through defenders for extra yards, had scored two touchdowns in a season opener against Catholic here on a brutally hot and humid evening at Bennett C Russell Stadium.

Earlier in the week, the Navarre High gym may as well have been a sauna. A lack of working air conditioning, coupled with the extreme August heat, made for slippery floor conditions and the Raiders being forced to call Tuesday’s match against Choctaw early.

But Thursday night, the AC worked and the Raiders rolled, holding off a tough Baker team in three sets, 25-17, 25-20, 25-15 for their first win of the season.