That's because the Rider defense was everywhere. They were in Kody Spano's face, sacking the Stephenville quarterback eight times. And they were all over the receivers, too.

The Rider defenders were ball-hawking, too. Will Tolliver came up with the first interception, leading to a Joey Neale field goal for a 10-0 lead.

Dorian Petty later added his team-leading fifth pick and linebackers John Fisher and Ryan McDonald had interceptions.

Fisher took his back 52 yards for a touchdown - he also scored one against Denton Ryan - that put the game on ice at 23-0 in the third quarter.

Or so everyone thought.

With nothing to lose, Spano started throwing deep and beating the Rider secondary over the top. He threw for 399 yards and four touchdowns after the 0-23 hole. After starting 1-of-9, he finished 20-of-40.

In this day, big passing numbers aren't necessarily a sign of bad defense, but an indication that one team was reduced to throwing the ball exclusively.

The Yellow Jackets were held to 42 yards rushing, although they lost 57 on the eight sacks. And at the end when time wasn't really the biggest issue, Stephenville elected to discard the run against the Raiders.

Feeding the comeback was an ineffective Rider offense. The best Raiders possession of the second half was a 6-yard trip to the end zone by Beaver, thanks to Markelle Martin’s 38-yard punt return. Without that play, Stephenville is the one watching film and getting ready for a trip west this week.

The other Rider second-half possessions were:

Two plays, a 5-yard penalty and a lost fumble.

Six plays, 27 yards, punt.

Two plays, 40 yards, lost fumble.

Three plays, 0 yards, punt.

Three plays, minus-10 yards, interception.

Four plays, minus-5 yards, a fumble that wasn’t lost and a hold on the same play, two pass completions for losses, a bad punt snap resulting in a safety.

Three plays, 2 yards, 35-yard punt.

Second-half total: 41 yards, three turnovers, two first downs.

And a whole lot of unnecessary stress on a defense that ended up winning the game twice.

"Those guys were awesome defensively," Ponder said of his team. "They were great all night."

Two of the biggest defensive plays didn't show up as turnovers or sacks. One came from nose tackle Zach Shaver, who stuffed Spano on fourth-and one from the Rider 20-yard line in the third quarter.

And then with Stephenville trying to get within eight via a two-point conversion, Rider's Jurell Thompson picked off Spano, an interception that doesn’t count in the game stats, and returned it 99 yards.

That does count for two points on the scoreboard. And when the three-hour game was over, it was hard to find any play that was more important.

Special play: The special teams had a good overall grade as Neale was 3-of-3 on field goals, matching his regular-season total. The Raiders gave up an onside kick by not being aggressive enough to the ball, but they also recovered one of their own in a nice surprise move by Ponder and a good kick by Neale.

And Martin's 38-yard return turned out to be every bit as big as the 62-yard runback by Cody Davis in Stephenville’s 27-15 win over Rider in September.

Neale was also the better punter, averaging 35.8 yards on five attempts.

Tickets: There will be pre-sale tickets available at Rider High School this week - $3 for students and $5 for adults. All tickets at the Shotwell Stadium gates are $6.