Usually when a team loses the turnover battle, it’s often not a good omen for a victory.

But the Richmond Senior football team overcame four turnovers to defeat Northwest Guilford 42-7 in the first round of the NCHSAA 4AA state playoffs at Raider Stadium Friday night.

The Raiders will play Providence in the second round at 7:30 p.m. next Friday at Raider Stadium. The Panthers defeated Vance 26-9 Friday. Richmond opened the season with a 27-17 victory over Providence.

“We know we can’t get where we want to go by turning over the ball a lot,” Raiders coach Paul Hoggard said. “Hopefully, we were able to get this out of our system and this won’t happen next week.”

The Raiders’ defense picked up the slack as Richmond (11-1) limited the Vikings to 232 yards, amassed four sacks and forced three turnovers. Senior cornerback Antoine Bostick had two interceptions in the victory and increased his total to 10 on the season.

“The defense did a great job of blitzing and getting pressure on the quarterback,” Hoggard said. “The key to playing a wing-T offense is getting them in long-yardage (situations) and we consistently were able to do that. Anytime you’re able to pretty much shutdown a team, it’s going to give you confidence and I believe we’ve been making good progress lately.”

Richmond’s special teams also made a big impact in the victory. An LJ Stroman 42-yard punt return put the Raiders at the Viking 12-yard line. Later in the drive, Walter Ellerbe Jr., who had 140 yards on 14 carries and two touchdowns, scored from 1-yard out to give Richmond a 7-0 first quarter lead with 7:36 remaining.

On its next series, the Raiders were marching down the field until the Vikings’ Jordan Golob stepped in front of quarterback Laron Ellerbe’s pass and returned it 62 yards for the touchdown to tie the contest at 7 with 2:53 left in the first.

After the Vikings tied the score, the Raiders turned the ball back over to Northwest Guilford. Laron Ellerbe botched the handoff with Labarrian Jones and the fumble was recovered by the Vikings.

However, the Richmond defense stiffened as Vonnie Dawkins sacked Matthew Pawlowski on fourth-and-long at the Richmond 32.

After the turnover on downs, Richmond used a seven-play drive capped by Walter Ellerbe’s 3-yard touchdown scamper, to take a 14-7 lead with 8:03 remaining in the second. The score was set up by Walter Ellerbe’s 45-yard run that put Richmond inside the Northwest Guilford 10.

“Walter is just a playmaker and he was able to carry the load again,” Hoggard said.

After the Raiders forced a Vikings’ punt, the Raiders’ special teams came up again as Quayshawn Dumas return the kick 59-yards for a touchdown to stretch the advantage to 21-7 with 6:37 left in the quarter.

“Quayshawn is a great player, and that score on special teams really was the one that broke the game open,” Hoggard said.

Richmond went on to outscore the Vikings 21-0 in the second half. After both teams traded turnovers, Richmond used a six-play drive capped by Jones’ 2-yard touchdown run to extend the lead to 28-7 late in the third.

In the fourth, the Raiders pushed the lead to 35-7. Laron Ellerbe connected with Dumas on a 26-yard touchdown reception as Dumas made a diving catch in the back of the end zone.

Richmond added a late score as Steve Houston scored from 4 yards out to cap the Raiders’ 35-point win.

“I thought Laron did some nice things and came around as the game went on,” Hoggard said. “The playoffs is all about surviving and we get a chance to play another day.”

n Contact sports reporter Corey Davis at 997-3111, ext. 44; e-mail cdavis@yourdailyjournal.com