Miranda Pederson/Daily News Warren East’s Adarius Barnett (center) gets tangled in the feet of a Trigg County defender Friday at Warren East High School. Trigg County won 32-12 in the season finale for the Raiders. Click here for more photos from Friday night football.

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Trigg County outscored Warren East by 20 points in the second half to survive “Mud Bowl 2009” on Friday with a 32-12 victory at WEHS in the season finale for the Raiders.

Click here for more photos from Friday night football.

The teams combined for 17 fumbles as a continuous rain turned the field at Raider Stadium into nothing but slop. The visitors from Cadiz picked up two of those fumbles and ran them in for scores, while East’s first score of the night came on a 38-yard fumble return.

The Raiders turned the ball over eight times, while TCHS gave it up just twice.

“I’m proud of our kids - the conditions hardly even made it a football game - but they stayed in there and they fought,” East coach Ben Bruni said. “They didn’t let the conditions dictate to them how hard they were gonna play.”

Despite playing to a 6-6 tie at the break, East (1-9) wore down in the second half as the Wildcats (6-4) began to find some semblance of footing on the wet turf.

It started with the opening possession of the second half, when Trigg County took the ball 60 yards on 12 plays over 5:52 to take a 14-6 lead. Josh Adams finished off the drive with a 4-yard run on fourth down around right end, just shaking the grasp of an East defender and diving across the goal line.

East fumbled away its next series but made a stand at its own 2 to get the ball back before quickly going three-and-out. The Cats took the ball at East’s 49 with exactly 12 minutes left in the game.

TCHS went 49 yards on 10 plays over 5:08 to make it 20-6 on Andrew Stewart’s quarterback keeper from the 1 on fourth down.

East unraveled from there.

The Raiders fumbled at their own 18 on the next drive. After the ball skidded and spun through the muck, Sean Bebee picked it up at the 2 and ran it in for a 26-6 lead. Mitch Rogers recovered a fumble for Trigg County on the next set of downs, then Dillon Chionko picked up a third straight fumble and ran it in from the 4 to make it 32-6.

Chionko wore No. 10 in the second half because his original No. 34 was caked in mud after the first 24 minutes. After 24 more minutes, the No. 10 was longer legible, either.

Darrenger Grayson ended the night with a 70-yard TD run for East with 19 seconds left - but it was much too little, too late.

“You can’t really yell at kids - (the ball’s) gonna get on the ground,” Bruni said. “But the reality is, there were two teams playing in the weather. It wasn’t like they were playin’ under a dome or something. Good job to Trigg County for taking care of the ball in the elements. It’s just a hard lesson we had to learn.”

The Raiders had 49 yards of total offense in the second half - including Grayson’s TD run.

In the first half, TCHS took a 6-0 lead after the Raiders fumbled their opening possession on its own 13. It took the Cats eight plays to score, but Akeem Wilson finally found paydirt from a yard out.

East tied the game at 6 with 5:52 left in the half when Cionko took a handoff to the left from his own 40, was drilled by Meritt Blevins and lost control of the ball. Justin Tobias scooped it at the 38 and raced down the right sideline untouched.

Trigg County returns to action next week when it hosts Owensboro Catholic in the first round of the Class 2A state playoffs.

TCHS 6 0 8 18 - 32

WEHS 0 6 0 6 - 12

First Quarter

TCHS - Stewart 1 run (pass failed), 7:38

Second Quarter

WEHS - Ju. Tobias 38 fumble return (pass failed), 5:52

Third Quarter

TCHS - Adams 4 run (Stewart run), 6:06

Fourth Quarter

TCHS - Stewart 1 run (kick failed), 6:52

TCHS - Bebee 2 fumble return (pass failed), 5:36

TCHS - Chionko 4 fumble return (kick failed), 1:34

WEHS - Grayson 70 run (run failed), 0:19