ROCKINGHAM — The last time Anson walked off the gridiron with a victory over Richmond Senior, none of the players on the field this evening were born.
The Bearcats downed the Raiders in 1994. It was the season finale for Richmond that year as it concluded a 7-4 mark.
First-year Anson coach Ralph Jackson understands it is going to be a difficult battle to try to take down Richmond. Jackson took over the head coaching duties from Luke Hyatt, who stepped down to take the job at Piedmont in Monroe.
The Jackson era at Anson didn’t get off to a good start as Forest Hills claimed a 13-6 victory in the season opener.
“We are taking it day by day,” Jackson said. “I am happy to be the coach of these young men.”
On the other side of the field, the beginning of the Mike Castellano era at Richmond was a different story. Richmond had its struggles in the beginning before catching fire in the second quarter en route to a 34-7 win over Rocky River.
“We were excited with the amount of effort we gave,” Castellano said. “We thought our execution wasn’t as good as it can be. That is something we want to improve on going forward. Any time your kids give you effort, you have a chance to win.”
That lack of execution in all phases of the game was a focal point of practice this week for Richmond in its preparation for Anson.
“We want to execute a lot better than we did on both sides of the ball,” Castellano said. “A lot of times you saw good things happen and other times you saw where one mistake kind of crippled us on a drive on either side of the ball.”
Richmond’s offense finished with 229 yards against Rocky River and failed to have a runner reach the 100-yard mark. Offensive coordinator Steve Burdeau said after watching film, there were areas to improve along the line.
“When I saw the stats, I was a little surprised, I thought we may have had a few more yards than that. I told the kids before the game, it doesn’t matter to me and it shouldn’t matter to them how many yards they get, how many touches they get, it’s going to be about the team’s success,” Burdeau said. “Luckily, special teams made a couple of good plays and gave us good field position. The yards will come throughout the season. We have to put it in the box, that’s the main thing.
“OL wise, if one person messes up, then we are losing yards or struggling to get yards. Or the running back has to bounce it because there’s nothing there and they are stringing it out to where we only get two. If there was a hole, we may bust one to the house.”
Jackson knows the Raiders have a handful of weapons on offense they can use at any time and at any spot on the field. He added his defense played well against Forest Hills but had some lapses.
“These guys really fly around the ball and have fun,” Jackson said. “Guys like Quami Henry, Timmy Horne, Denarious Hilton, Derek Taylor and Tavion Rorie, it’s going to come together for them.”
Anson, like Richmond, has been working on its execution. Jackson said the Bearcats had too many mental mistakes in their opening loss.
“We had too many penalties, made too many mistakes, and that is on us as coaches,” Jackson said. “So, we’ll take the blame for this one. But from this point on, it’s on the guys.”
Castellano said despite its struggles on offense, he noticed some bright spots for Anson when looking over the film.
“We saw a team that I thought had kids that competed really hard, they had a quarterback (D’angelo Tyson) who did a good things running around and making plays happen. He’s a talented, athletic kid,” Castellano said. “Their running backs I thought ran really hard. It looks like they have a really athletic tight end (Jatheria Coppedge). I thought the offensive line looked on film to be a big physical group.”
During the win against Rocky River, Castellano was frustrated several times because of players being out of position before the start of play. Castellano said the team talked about ways to eliminate the problem going forward.
“You correct it as a team. One guy may have lined up wrong, but that’s on the entire defense,” Castellano said. “They are all accountable for each other to know where each other are supposed to be. You can’t play sound football if you don’t know what the guy next to you is supposed to be doing. It’s on all of us, it’s repetition, it’s watching it on film and then going on the practice field and doing it.”
Even though Rocky River failed to notch 200 yards of offense against his defense in the season opener, Castellano wants his players to put that behind them and focus on getting better in each practice and each game.
“We want to have better execution and continue to fly to the football,” Castellano said. “We talk about what we need to do, not what the other team does. We need to be consistent tackling-wise, consistent where our eyes need to be and whatever alignment defensively we’re supposed to be in and create turnovers.”
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