BRIDGE CITY — A rough first half spelled doom for the Bridge City Cardinals as they dropped a 34-0 decision to the Lumberton Raiders Friday night in District 11-4A Division 1 action.

The Raiders (5-3, 3-0) used their punishing running game to go up 28-0 on the Cardinals (1-7, 0-3) by intermission and also took advantage of four Bridge City turnovers.

The Raiders finished with 310 total yards, all coming on the ground.

Lumberton tailback Ty Cruse finished with 135 yards on 16 carries. Quarterback Drake Boykin had 79 yards on 12 totes and Reagan Koch added 63 yards on three carries.

The Cardinals finished with 182 total yards but couldn’t get their ground game going. The Cardinals had 90 rushing yards on 42 carries with Rylan Play leading the way with 56 tough yards on 21 carries. Quarterback Cace Skinner completed 9-of-20 passes for 92 yards. Blake Moore had four receptions for 44 yards while Jackson Tims had three grabs for 37 yards.

Lumberton had 215 yards in the first half, all on the ground. Cruse zipped for 87 yards on 11 carries in the half. Boykin had 66 yards on 10 totes while Koch had 57 yards on two carries.

The Cardinals only mustered 71 total yards as they had two fumbles and were picked off twice. Skinner completed 4-of-10 passes for 43 yards with Tims hauling in three of them for 37 yards. Ply had 30 yards on 14 carries.

The second time the Raiders had the ball, they used one explosive play to snare an early lead as back Ty Cruse burst through a hole in the middle and then hit the left sideline for a 62-yard touchdown gallop. Kaleb Carr booted the extra-point to give the Raiders a 7-0 edge with 9:07 in the first quarter.

After the Cardinals muffed a punt at the Raider 45 with 5:42 left in the first quarter, Lumberton chewed up the rest of the clock in the period and some more in the second quarter to grab a 14-0 edge.

The Raiders chewed off 6:11 of the clock, all on the ground, featuring Cruse, picking up five first downs and methodically moving down the field on 13 plays. Braden Carter capped it lining up as a Wildcat quarterback as he bolted up the middle from five yards out for the score, making it 14-0 with 11:29 in the half.

The Raiders scored on another big run with 8:09 in the half when on third-and-9, Reagan Koch took a pitch to the left and zipped 64 yards for a touchdown to push the margin to 21-0.

Lumberton capitalized on another Cardinal miscue after Bridge City coughed it up at their own 39 with 6:40 in the half. Boykin ran for 13 yards on first down and capped it with a 26-yard keeper straight up the middle for a touchdown, pushing it to 28-0 with 6:24 in the half.

On the their first series of the third quarter, the Cardinals elected to go for it on fourth-and-2 from their own 29 and were stuffed at the 27.

The Raiders scored four plays later on a Mason Williams 5-yard keeper up the middle to make it 34-0 with 7:19 in the third.

The Cardinals put together a 16-play, 66-yard drive late in the game but the Raiders held firm and Cardinal kicker Oscar Carranza’s 35-yard field goal attempt with 0:12 remaining went just wide left.

The Cardinals will remain at home next week as they welcome in the winless Livingston Lions (0-8, 0-3). The Lions fell to LC-M (3-5, 2-1) 21-0 Friday. Meanwhile, the Raiders will return home to tangle with Splendora (7-1, 3-0) in a battle for first-place. Splendora defeated Huffman (3-5, 1-2) 20-6 Friday night.