Bryce Dowdlan had only 10 carries but rolled up 205 rushing yards and four touchdowns as B.C. Rain broke open a close game in the second half and routed Citronelle 47-14 in Class 5A, Region 1 action at Ben Glover Stadium on Friday night.

Dowdlan’s touchdowns covered 28, 1, 74, and 59 yards as the Red Raiders (4-2 overall, 2-2 in region play) won their third game in a row.

“I owe it all to my O-line,” Dowdlan said. “Coach (LT) Yelding told us during halftime to keep playing. Citronelle thought they had us where they had us, but they didn’t have us, so Coach just said keep playing. We didn’t play like ourselves in the first quarter, but in the second quarter we turned it on for him.”

The Red Raiders amassed 331 rushing yards and wound up with 508 yards total offense, while also committing 21 penalties for 165 yards.

“We’re clicking on both sides of the ball, and we want to make sure in these next four region games we keep it going,” Yelding said. “Dowdlan is special, and I’m really proud of him. I preach to myself that he’s one of the better running backs in the Southeast, barring none. I’m just so proud of him and he keeps doing what he’s doing.

“Most of our penalties came on the kickoffs (kicking the ball out of bounds). We also had a couple of personal fouls, and it comes to walking away and not responding to things. So, it’s just a building process.”

Rain needed only two plays to score on its first possession as Dowdlan’s 28-yard touchdown run came after Amari Yelding’s 31-yard pass to Dillon Robinson. The Wildcats (3-3, 1-3) answered when quarterback Justin Adams scored on a 4-yard run. On its next possession, Citronelle kept the ball for nearly eight minutes, but failed to convert on fourth down on the Red Raider 35.

The Red Raiders made the Wildcats pay, as they used six plays, and aided by a personal foul, made it 14-7 with 1:32 to go in the half when Dowdlan scored on a 1-yard run.

Rain then scored three times in the third quarter —Yelding’s 31-yard touchdown pass to Robinson, Dowdlan’s 74-yard touchdown run, and a 20-yard touchdown run by Emerian Davis — to stretch the lead to 34-7.

Dowdlan’s 59-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter basically ended the game, but backup quarterback Landon Snow put up another touchdown for Citronelle when he connected with David Sullivan on a 20-yard touchdown pass to make it 41-14. The Red Raiders were not done quite yet, as backup quarterback Malachi Adams hit Julius Rogers on a 39-yard touchdown pass with 36.2 seconds remaining.

Coachspeak: “You got to tip your hat to Coach Yelding, their staff, and their players. They just whipped our tail.” – Citronelle coach Jason Rowell

“They (Citronelle) took the air out of the ball in the second quarter. We just wanted to get the ball back and we’ve got some special kids on both the offensive and the defensive side of the ball.” – Yelding

Key sequence: A good Citronelle punt backed Rain to its 20 as the Red Raiders clung to a 14-point lead. But they needed only three plays to score, that third play being the long touchdown run by Dowdlan which was made possible by the linemen making some gigantic holes, allowing him to burst through the line untouched and score. “I saw the hole, and all I could think about was, ‘It’s go time. I got to get that touchdown.’” Dowdlan said.

Key stats: For Rain, Amari Yelding finished 8-of-11 passing for 131 yards. Jermani Rogers had 12 carries for 77 yards, while Davis had five carries for 36 yards. Robinson had four receptions for 76 yards. For Citronelle, Adams completed 4-of-19 passes for 28 yards and an interception, while Snow was 4-of-5 for 37 yards and a score. Keyshawn Williams rushed nine times for 37 yards.

They said it …: “We got our last touchdown on a call that wasn’t even made. He made a check and the kid bit. We teach him to read and he audibled to it. I got to go apologize to him because I ripped him pretty good on the sideline, but he was only doing what we coached him to do. There will be situations where to do it, and that was a situation where not to do it.” Yelding, referring to Adams’ late touchdown pass

“We’ve got to play better collectively as a team. We’ve got to tackle better. We’ve got a lot of work to do, and we knew this was going to be a work in progress and there were going to be a lot of hills and valleys. Tonight, we were in a valley, and we got to figure out how to climb these hills again.” – Rowell

Up next: Both teams continue region play next Friday night, with Rain traveling to UMS-Wright and Citronelle hosting Williamson.