 Mountain Top Sports made its way to Raceland Saturday night for the season-opening matchup between Pikeful and the host Rams. Pikeful quarterback Isaac McNamee passed for 144 yards and one touchdown while running back Blake Birchfield ran for 146 yards on 11 carries and two touchdowns as the defending class 1A champion Panthers beat Raceland 28-7. The game took three hours and 40 minutes to play because of lightning strikes in the area, the entire second half was played in a steady downpour of rain. The victory was Pikeful's 15th straight including a perfect 14-0 mark one year ago. It also marked the first win for the Panthers at Raceland in 64 years. Birchfield's 47-yard run with three minutes and 12 seconds left in the opening period put the Panthers ahead for good, McNamee's two-point conversion made it 8-0. The Panthers extended their lead to 15-0 at halftime on running back Nate Collins' three-yard run with two minutes and six seconds left in the second quarter. McNamee tossed a 72-yard pass to Zach Lockhart with four minutes and 25 seconds left in the third to push the lead to 22-0. Birchfield's 41-yard run with three minutes and 39 seconds left to play extended the lead to 28-0. Raceland added a late touchdown to avoid the shutout. Pikeful will host Bell Free next Friday night at Hillard Howard Field with Mountain Top Sports. I'm Cody Davis.