SAC champions

ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond Senior High School Football Team wrapped up the regular season as Sandhills Athletic Conference champions after pulling away with a 30-6 victory last Friday.

The Raiders’ defense dominated the Scots from the first whistle, holding Scotland scoreless until the third quarter while the offense piece-mealed a strong performance following a shaky start.

“To win this, for these guys – the way they’ve been playing and pushing through all year long – it’s something special. I told the seniors before the game, it was personal. I vowed to do everything I could to get them this conference championship, I told them I have their back, they have mine, ‘Let’s go get this thing,’” Richmond coach Brad Denson said.

Scotland had plenty of opporunities to keep the game close, but came short despite a handful of red-zone opporunities, prompting Scotland coach Richard Bailey to declare the Raider defense as the best season they will face all season, unless Scotland makes it to the state championship.

“Hats off to Richmond County and their coaching staff. They deserve the win. They are an excellent football team. They are by far the best defense we’ve played all year. I told our kids ‘We’re not going to play a defense like that in the 3A state playoffs until the state championship game.’ They’re a really good defensive team,” Bailey said.

While linebacker Kmauri Morgan had a team-leading 10 tackles, fellow linebacker Terande Spencer had a career night with 9 tackles, 4 for a loss, which included 3 sacks.

“I had weeks to prepare. I got to put more stuff in my toolbag before the game against tackles, and getting around them, and going to the quarterback,” Spencer said.

Offensively, following the shaky start, the Raiders utilized a variety of their offensive weapons with four different players reaching crossing the goal line last Friday. On his only pass of the evening, running back Jordan Bostick put Richmond on the scoreboard with a 3-yard pass to receiver Amir Morrison, which happened to be Morrison’s only catch of the evening. Bostick also averaged more than 10 yards per carry for a team-leading 108 yards and another TD on the ground. While not finishing with a perfect passer rating as Bostick, quarterback Evan Hodges nearly had a perfect night after missing last week’s game with a leg injury. A pass from Hodges to receiver Bob Pegues set up a 19-yard field goal by Billy West, taking Richmond into halftime with a 10-0 lead.

“We can do it all. We can block, and go get the ball when we need to. We put it all together, and beat them on it – all night – until we got in the end zone. If they try to stop the run, then we go straight to the pass. If they try to stop the pass, then we got straight to the run. The guys down there can throw,” said Pegues, who had a team-leading 5 catches, but his 39 yards receiving was second to receiver Keonta Davis’ 45 yards on 2 catches.

A Hodges-to-Pegues connection in the third quarter made it a three-score game. Early in the fourth quarter, a 30-yard jet sweep by receiver Jayden Hamilton set up a 5-yard Bostick TD, then running back Chance Crowder all but ended the contest with a 13-yard TD, which prompted Scotland coach Bailey to pull his and essentially throw up a white flag. With the win, the Raiders finish the regular season 8-2 and undefeated in the SAC at 6-0. The Raiders will find out who they face next Friday during a seeding meeting this Sunday, then open the playoffs November 15 at Raider Stadium.

“It’s great. In my opinion, we’ve had a great season. Beating Scotland just tops the whole thing off. We got the momentum rolling. Everybody just did their assignment and, well, you saw what happened,” Senior center Lincoln Smith said.