It was a must win game for the Nemaha Valley Raiders to close out the regular season and keep their playoff hopes alive, as they needed a Rock Creek loss to Riley County on top of a win against the Marysville Bulldogs on the road.

Nemaha Valley easily took care of their end of the bargain as the cruised to a 33-0 win over Marysville on the Bulldogs senior night. The Raiders then needed help from Riley County and they got it in the fashion of a 41-0 trouncing of Rock Creek, to give Nemaha Valley the district runner up spot behind Riley County and most importantly meaning the Raiders will be in the playoffs on Tuesday.

For the Raiders their focus on the night was first and foremost on Marysville and you saw that from the on set as the Raiders defense forced a turnover on downs on Marysville's first drive, giving the Raiders offense a short field on their first offense drive. Nemaha Valley would take advantage of that short field with a 40-yard reserve run by Alex Rottinghaus on the first offensive play for the Raiders, going for touchdown. Quickly a 7-0 lead for the Raiders just two minutes into the game.

The Raiders offense continued success with another short field the second time they touched the ball, moving it down the field and scoring a on 18-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback, Caleb Meyer to Alex Rottinghaus.

Nemaha Valley added one more score before the half with a Meyer four yard touchdown run, to lead it 20-0 at the half after one PAT failed.

Going into the second half it had been all Nemaha Valley and that trend continued in the second half as the stellar defensive performance continued as the Raiders pitched their first shutout of the year and it would be the fifth time the Raiders would hold their opponent under 10 points. The defensive success didn't stop with the shutout as the Raiders intercepted two Bulldog passes and tallied a pair of sacks, also. You can added a pair of second half punt blocks on special teams as big plays for the Raiders.

One of those punt blocks resulted in a short field score for Nemaha Valley as they went on to score two more touchdowns (one PAT failed). Both touchdowns came on the ground by David Holthaus and Devin Henry (6 & 14 yards, respectively).

With the 33-0 win over Marysville and the Riley County win Nemaha Valley heads to the Class 3A playoffs with a 7-2 record this season. The Raiders will be on the road Tuesday to open the playoffs, taking on a team they are familiar with in Big Seven league foe the Hiawatha Redhawks, who won their district. Nemaha Valley earlier this season beat Hiawatha 27-21 in Seneca, but this one will be in Hiawatha.

You can hear the game on 103.9 KNZA Tuesday night with kickoff at 7:00pm.