ROCKINGHAM — A breakout performance during Richmond football’s first win of the season headlines this edition of The Richmond Observer’s weekly feature series.
Evan Hodges, a junior quarterback, has been named the Official Richmond County Male Student-Athlete of the Week presented by Rockingham NC Self Storage.
Richmond’s varsity football team broke into the win column last week against Butler High School and Hodges’ efforts through the air and on the ground provided a bulk of the offense.
Playing varsity football for his second season, and emerging as the go-to quarterback this fall, Hodges earned his first career recognition.
Athletic Profile: Evan Hodges
Year: Junior
Fall sport: Football
Position: Quarterback
Varsity experience: 2 Seasons
Other sports: Baseball
“CLASSROOM CREDITS” WITH EVAN HODGES
A two-sport student-athlete, Hodges has to balance classes and athletics during both semesters. He’s taking the bulk of his classes at Richmond this fall, but also has one dual enrollment class at Richmond Community College.
At RichmondCC, he’s taking Math 171, which is also a credit that transfers for hopeful NCAA student-athletes.
Other courses he’s taking currently include AP United States Government, Electrical Trades I Honors and Weight Training Honors.
At the start of the school year, Hodges had a 4.31 weighted grade point average. Between classes, football and baseball, Hodges is also an active member of the National Beta Club.
When asked what his favorite class is this semester, Hodges said it’s Math 171 because, “math has always been one of my favorite subjects and this class is a good challenge so far.”
“IN THE HUDDLE” WITH EVAN HODGES
After splitting reps evenly throughout the summer and preseason with fellow junior quarterback Domonic Tillman, Hodges has emerged as Richmond’s QB1 after the first two games of the season.
While he hasn’t taken every snap on offense, Hodges has been responsible for most of the Raiders’ scoring drives. In the win over Butler, Hodges had a hand in scoring two of Richmond’s three offensive touchdowns.
Hodges was 8-for-11 through the air with 95 passing yards against the Bulldogs with a 129.0 quarterback rating. Additionally, he rushed for 37 yards on nine carries and added another score.
Trailing by seven points in the first quarter, Hodges captained a 14-play, 80-yard scoring drive to tie it up. Hodges moved the sticks twice on the drive with passes of 10 and 12 yards to junior wide receivers Keonta Pegues and Jayden Hamilton, respectively.
A nine-yard scramble by the QB put Richmond in the red zone. Facing second-and-goal from the four-yard line, Hodges threw his first passing touchdown of the season to senior running back Jordan Bostick in the right flat.
The Raiders added to their lead in the second half when senior Chris Covington scored on a fumble recovery and Bostick rushed for a two-yard score. Hodges capped the scoring late in the fourth quarter with his first rushing TD.
Keeping the ball, Hodges broke to the left side of the line and squeezed between two tacklers to cross the goal line from two yards out with 5:16 left to play. Setting up the score was a 55-yard completion to Hamilton, who added most of the yards after the catch.
Through two games this season, Hodges has completed 14-of-22 passing for 205 yards and one score. On the ground, he’s added a touchdown on 11 carries for 44 yards.
Richmond (1-1) will play at Cardinal Gibbons High School (1-0) Friday at 7 p.m.
“RAPID RESPONSE” VIDEO WITH EVAN HODGES
The Richmond Observer will publish two more Official Richmond County Student-Athletes of the Week next week.
