Senior receiver Tremel Jones fights for extra yards against two Pinecrest defenders.
                                 Neel Madhavan | Daily Journal

Senior receiver Tremel Jones fights for extra yards against two Pinecrest defenders.

Neel Madhavan | Daily Journal

<p>Junior Cason Douglas (8) and sophomore Emerson Wall (23) swarm and tackle a Pinecrest ball carrier Friday night.</p>
                                 <p>Neel Madhavan | Daily Journal</p>

Junior Cason Douglas (8) and sophomore Emerson Wall (23) swarm and tackle a Pinecrest ball carrier Friday night.

Neel Madhavan | Daily Journal

<p>Junior quarterback Kellen Hood throws a screen pass off an RPO Friday night against Pinecrest.</p>
                                 <p>Neel Madhavan | Daily Journal</p>

Junior quarterback Kellen Hood throws a screen pass off an RPO Friday night against Pinecrest.

Neel Madhavan | Daily Journal

SOUTHERN PINES — Despite dealing with turnovers, penalties and other miscues, the Richmond Senior High School varsity football team proved resilient Friday night, surviving a scare to open its season with a 42-35 overtime win against Pinecrest.

“There’s a lot of learning points that helps us,” said head coach Bryan Till. “That was a great effort by Pinecrest with them fighting and competing. I think the things we learned about our team tonight are what’s most important and are a good springboard from here. Guys were playing in different spots and were able to adjust and adapt, no matter what was happening. They just continued to play.”

At first, it looked as though the Raiders (1-0) would cruise to a win, as they ran ahead to a 21-0 lead into the second quarter. But, Pinecrest (1-1) had other plans.

Through the steady play of quarterback Braxton Barber, who had a lot of success rolling out of the pocket and throwing on the run and finished 12-for-23 for 203 passing yards and a touchdown, coupled with the Raiders’ miscues, the Patriots clawed their way back to score 24 unanswered points and take the lead midway through the third quarter.

After recovering a fumble that led to Richmond’s third touchdown that put it up 21-0, junior Jamari Broady made a special teams play to help stop the bleeding and halt Pinecrest’s momentum. He scooped up a loose ball that was mishandled on the snap by Pinecrest punter Jeff Yurk and returned it 57 yards for a touchdown to put the Raiders back ahead 28-24.

“Without that touchdown, we would have been down,” Broady said. “Hopefully the offense would have scored, but that gave us more motivation. We were down when I picked up that fumble so I did that for the team.”

“Jamari had a really good night,” Till said. “Those were big parts of the game — keeping us in it and continuing to give the offense chances. He did some things that a lot of people don’t see — he took on some blocks on some of the runs and stopped some runs on the short side.”

The Raiders’ mistakes were a significant part of what helped keep Pinecrest in the game. The three turnovers hurt the Raiders, one of which was a mishandled snap on a punt, which was picked up and returned 52 yards for a touchdown.

“It just kind of had a snowball effect with just one thing after the other,” Till said. “We were giving them momentum by our actions. We had to respond differently. As the night went on, we continued to respond differently to it and you can see it paid off.”

Defensive coordinator James Johnson lamented all the Raiders’ defensive penalties. In total, the Richmond had 11 penalties for 108 yards.

“We just kept extending drives for them,” Johnson said. “I don’t think there was a single scoring drive where we didn’t have a 15-yarder (penalty) or multiple 15-yarders (penalties). That’s the thing we have to get better at on defense is not putting them in a position to score. It was just boneheaded mistakes. It was unforced. There were some times we didn’t keep our cool the way we needed to and that’s something we’ve preached in practice. We just didn’t do it and we have to correct it.

Junior Kellen Hood played his first game as the Raiders new starting quarterback, going 17-for-29 for 227 yards and a touchdown. Till said he was proud of what he saw from Hood.

“He never seemed fazed at all, never rattled, nothing,” Till said. “Every time something went wrong, he was leading his teammates. The poise of that young man was impressive.”

Senior receiver Tremel Jones was vital for the offense in the passing game. He was Hood’s primary target all night, catching nine passes for 140 yards, including a 42-yard catch-and-run touchdown pass on a screen early in the fourth quarter that put the Raiders ahead 35-27 after Pinecrest had cut the lead to one with a field goal.

Despite issues with slowing down Pinecrest’s offense at times, the Raiders’ defense stepped up when it mattered most.

In the final few minutes of regulation, the defense faced several do-or-die situations. With the score tied 35-35, both teams had two offensive possessions to get the go-ahead or game-winning score. Both of Pinecrest’s chances came inside Richmond territory. The first stop came when the Raiders forced a punt after Pinecrest drove across midfield and the second came when Pinecrest recovered a Richmond fumble at the Raiders own 41-yard-line.

“There’s some good in how we got stops and scored on special teams,” Johnson said. “You look at the big picture and there’s definitely some positives there to build on and things we can continue to work with and grow. I think we’ll have a chance to look at film and see what guys can do in different spots that we didn’t think we’d get much of a chance to look at because of how the game played out.”

Then, in overtime, with the Patriots needing a touchdown to force a second overtime, Cason Douglas and Isaiah Jones stopped Pinecrest with a fourth down pass breakup in the front corner of the end zone.

“We picked it up at the end of the game and came through and did what we needed to do,” Broady said.

To support the Richmond County Daily Journal, subscribe at https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/subscribe.

Reach Neel Madhavan at 910-817-2675 ext. 2751 or [email protected]. Follow on Twitter at @NeelMadhavan.