SANFORD — Everything and more went according to plan for the Richmond Senior High School football team Friday.
Starting their season within a season and Sandhills Athletic Conference play, the Raiders were all business on the road at Southern Lee High School.
A two-possession lead at halftime quickly stacked up for Richmond in the final two quarters, which rolled the Cavaliers 41-7.
The Raiders, who scored a season-high in points, spread their offense across four rushing scores and two passing touchdowns.
Junior quarterback Evan Hodges and senior running back Jordan Bostick both tallied a tandem of rushing scores. Through the air, junior quarterback Domonic Tillman connected twice with senior wide receiver Keyonta Davis.
Head coach Brad Denson, who won his first SAC contest in his debut, said the Raiders started quickly on offense before plateauing before halftime.
There to keep the Cavaliers (2-2) honest, Richmond’s defense applied copious amounts of pressure all game long and finished the night with two takeaways.
Shutting out the Cavaliers for 47:02 of the game clock, Richmond lost its chance at a clean sheet with 58 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
The Raider defense set the tone from the first series, holding the Cavaliers to a three-and-out. That was the first of four straight defensive three-and-outs forced by Richmond in the first half.
A short kick gave the Raiders possession at the Southern Lee 41-yard line. Thanks to a defensive pass interference call on first down, Richmond moved to the 26-yard line.
On their first actual snap from scrimmage, the Raiders found the end zone. Junior quarterback Evan Hodges made the read on the RPO and hustled up the middle of the field and into the end zone for a 26-yard score.
With the addition of senior kicker Billy West’s point-after attempt, Richmond led 7-0 with 8:43 left in the first quarter.
Near picks on second and third down by senior defensive backs Keidreion Crump and Chris Covington brought up another punt for the Cavs.
Both teams traded punts on the next two drives, with each offense recovering a lost ball. Senior center Lincoln Smith made a diving recovery to save a turnover in the red zone for the Raiders.
Southern Lee coughed up the ball on second down but recovered it. Senior linebacker Joe Parsons made a tackle-for-loss on the next play.
Richmond took over at its own 48-yard line and marched down the field on a seven-play, 52-yard scoring drive, which rolled over into the second quarter.
An 18-yard reception by senior wide receiver Nicholas Griggs from Tillman on first down moved the ball across midfield.
Runs by sophomore Chance Crowder, senior running back Jordan Bostick and Tillman got Richmond inside the 10-yard line. A face mask penalty following a long Tillman run set up first-and-goal.
On second down from the five-yard line, Bostick slid right and found a large opening in the line to rush into the end zone untouched.
A bad snap on the PAT resulted in West scrambling, making Richmond’s lead 13-0 with 11:20 to go in the second.
Southern Lee’s final three drives in the half resulted in a three-and-out punt, a 52-yard field goal attempt that was well short and the clock expiring.
Junior linebacker Terande Spencer had a couple of splash plays on those drives, including a quarterback hurry, a tackle for loss and a sack of quarterback Robert Sims to push the Cavs out to a long field goal attempt.
Richmond’s offense went flat on its final two drives. They ended in a turnover on downs and a red zone pick by Hodges.
Starting the second half with the ball, Richmond got good starting field position thanks to a long return by junior Jayden Hamilton.
With the ball at the Richmond 48-yard line, Hodges captained a four-play, 52-yard scoring sequence. A 20-yard pass play to junior wideout Amer Morrison on its second play got Richmond down to the 28-yard line.
Hodges kept the ball on the next snap, a 20-yard gain. From the eight-yard line, Bostick capped his scoring with a rushing touchdown, this time to the left side.
West split the uprights for the third of his five PATs, which gave the Raiders a 20-0 lead less than two minutes into the third.
That touchdown was the first of four straight scoring drives for Richmond to begin the second half.
Spencer kept up his aggressive play from the outside edge position and recovered a fumble on fourth down on Southern Lee’s next possession. A bad snap bounced around in the backfield and Spencer lunged on top of it to give the Raiders the ball at the Cavs’ 44-yard line.
Making their way to the 32-yard line, the Raiders notched their first of consecutive passing scores on back-to-back drives.
Tillman, who made a conversion on third down a few plays before, found Davis for a short completion in the right flat on third-and-eight.
Davis used his speed and strength to weave his way down the right sideline, and broke several tackles and crossed into the end zone.
With 5:04 remaining in the third, West made it 27-0.
The only time Southern Lee visited the red zone Friday was on its next drive, which was aided by a defensive pass interference call and a horse collar penalty.
With the Cavs at the five-yard line, Covington, Spencer (sack) and Parsons made stops on second, third and fourth downs, respectively, to thwart the scoring chance.
Starting at its seven-yard line, the Richmond offense needed only five plays to go 93 yards to the house.
Crowder made gains of 20 and three yards, which was followed by a 19-yard rush from senior running back Joseph Patterson.
Near midfield, Tillman hustled out of the pocket for a 20-yard scramble to get to the 31-yard line.
On the next snap, Tillman threaded a pass to Davis over the middle, who turned up field and crossed the goal line untouched.
The duo’s second hook up, paired with another West PAT, put the game out of reach 34-0 with 10:46 to go in the fourth quarter.
A three-and-out by the Cavaliers deep in their own zone yielded another punt. Junior returner Keonta Pegues caught the ball near midfield and took it down to the Southern Lee 11-yard line, setting up Richmond’s final score.
Four plays into the drive, on fourth-and-four, Hodges plowed through a couple of defenders for the short-yardage rushing touchdown.
Capping the Raiders’ scoring, West was good one more time on the point-after.
Richmond’s second defensive takeaway came on the next play by junior linebacker Jason Gainey. Off the left edge, he blitzed through the line and strip-sacked Sims and recovered the fumble at the Cavs’ 18-yard line with 5:44 to go.
The Raiders couldn’t convert on fourth down and turned the ball over. Sims connected with Brett Blanks on a long pass down the left sideline for Southern Lee’s only score.
Richmond recovered the onside kick attempt and Hodges took a final knee to end it.
Improving to 3-2 on the season, and 1-0 in SAC action, the Raiders are moving onto 4A rivalry week with Pinecrest High School. The game will be played on the road next Friday and start at 7:30 p.m.
The Patriots (4-0) had their bye week Friday. Through four games, Pinecrest is allowing 30.5 points per game.
The Richmond Observer will publish a photo gallery of Richmond’s road win over Southern Lee Saturday.
Sports editor’s note: Official stats and game totals were not available at the time of publication.
