The Richmond Senior High football team showed its championship mettle. The defending champion Raiders defeated South View 48-27 to bounce back from last week’s 38-31 loss to Butler.

The victory improved Richmond’s record to 4-1 on the season.

Raider coach Paul Hoggard was pleased at how his team rebounded from its first defeat.

“It was a great way to bounce back after the disappointing loss,” Hoggard said. “We played really hard against Butler, and we played really hard tonight. South View has a great offensive team and we were able to hang in there and eventually slow them down.”

The Raiders grabbed a 19-6 lead at halftime on Tedarrius Wiley’s 14-yard touchdown pass to Quayshawn Dumas with 42 seconds remaining in the second quarter.

South View got back into the game at the start of the third quarter when Raiders’ running back Walter Ellerbe fumbled the football and South View’s Isaac Crews scooped up the fumble and ran it back 58 yards for a touchdown to help cut Richmond’s lead to 19-13.

On Richmond’s next possession Labarrian Jones scored from 20-yards out and he ran in the two-point conversion giving Richmond a 27-13 lead with 9:37 left in the third quarter.

On South View’s next play Trey Booker ran 66 yards for a touchdown to cut the deficit to 27-20 with 9:22 left in the third.

On the kick-off, Ellerbe returned the kick 50 yards to begin Richmond’s next possession at South View’s 36-yard line. Richmond scored six plays later as Jones’ 3-yard touchdown run push the Richmond lead to two touchdowns with 6:28 left in the third.

“They haven’t slowed us down all game, and I told the team we just had to keep doing what we were doing,” Hoggard said.

On South View’s next possession, Richmond‘s defense forced South View to turn the ball over on downs.

Jones scored on at 2-yard touchdown run with 3:57 left in the game to extend Richmond’s lead to 41-20.

South View refused to go quietly as Justin Frederick’s 4-yard touchdown run cut the lead to 41-27 with 3:34 left in the contest. The Tigers’ (2-3) final score was set up by Booker’s 54-yard scamper.

However Jones slammed the door with his fifth score of the night, a 30-yard touchdown run with 1:15 left in the game for the final margin.

Richmond’s defense forced four first-half turnovers. Antoine Bostick had two interceptions and L.J. Stroman added an interception of his own. Stroman also recovered Booker’s fumble in the second quarter.

“I was proud of our defense forced some turnovers and I thought our secondary played well,” Hoggard said.

The Raiders return to action at 7:30 p.m. next Friday on Homecoming night against New Hanover at Raider Stadium.