ROCKINGHAM — Caleb Hood, Malik Stanback and Da’Shaun Wallace have been named the Daily Journal’s Athletes of the Week for the week of Monday, Oct. 30.
All three players were instrumental in the Richmond football team’s best offensive performance of the year, as their performances helped the team finish with 570 yards of total offense in a 69-47 loss to Scotland on Friday.
Hood is a freshman quarterback who completed 24 of 46 passes for 424 yards and four touchdowns. His 423 yards through the air wound up being two yards short of the school record for most passing yards in a game (Leon Zeigler, 425) and his 24 completions tied the school record for most completed passes in a single game (Tedarrius Wiley, 24).
“My mindset was to come out with the win, but that didn’t happen,” Hood said. “But it was special. I was just trying to have fun the whole time and it worked out pretty good. Now I’ve just got to break my own record and hopefully break the other one.”
Stanback is a junior wide receiver who, a week after lead the team to a last-minute victory, hauled in seven receptions for a season-high 154 yards and a score. He would catch a 30-yard touchdown pass from Hood, with two Scotland defenders draped over him, with only 30 seconds left in the first half.
“The coaches always tell us to practice how we play. And the past couple of weeks — really, the whole season — I’ve practiced hard,” Stanback said. “I’ve been trying to turn that over into the games, and that’s what I’ve been doing.”
Wallace is a senior wide receiver who had his best performance of the season in the rivalry matchup, catching seven passes from Hood for 131 yards and two touchdowns. His 30-yard gain, on Richmond’s first play from scrimmage, set the tone for his big night and he would cap it off with a one-handed grab near the sideline late in the fourth quarter.
“At the beginning of the season I was saying in my head that I was going to get a one-handed catch at Scotland, and it happened,” Wallace said with a laugh. “I just come out here every day in practice and work hard. And it pays off.”