ROCKINGHAM – The defense for the Richmond Senior junior varsity football team bent but did not break it its Sandhills Athletic Conference bout with rival Pinecrest on Thursday evening at Raider Stadium.
Despite giving up two touchdowns and 157 yards of offense to the visiting Patriots, the Raiders recorded ten tackles for loss in the game. Those sacks helped to derail a pair of long Pinecrest drives and secured a 20-14 Richmond victory.
With the win, the Raiders improve to 3-2 on the season and 2-0 in conference play.
The momentum was with Richmond early. After stopping Pinecrest’s opening drive, the Raiders put together an eight-play, 70-yard scoring drive. Richmond took over at its own 30-yard line following a Patriot punt. The Raiders were hit with an early false start penalty, but Ali Tyson moved the chains with back-to-back 8-yard carries.
After another rushing yard from Tyson and six more for quarterback Evan Hodges, Joseph Patterson pushed forward for three yards and another first down at the Pinecrest 49-yardline.
For a moment, it looked as though the drive may stall. After a false start penalty, the Raiders returned to the original line of scrimmage with a 2-yard run from Patterson and a three-yard run from Keonta Pegues. Facing third-and-ten, Hodges connected with Nicholas Griggs in stride who sprinted down the visitor’s sideline untouched for the game’s first score. The PAT attempt missed its target, but the Raiders led 6-0.
The two teams went three-and-out on their next possessions before Pinecrest took advantage of good field position set up by a long punt return. The Patriots went 43 yards on seven plays to even the game at 6-all. Richmond’s Tate Simpson prevented the visitors from taking the lead by blocking the point after attempt.
Hodges was picked off on the first play following the kickoff keeping the momentum with the Patriots who were now in business at the Richmond 28-yardline. The Patriots would move the ball all the way down to the Richmond 2-yard line, but the Raider defense kept them out and the two teams went into the break at 6-6.
Pegues excited Raider Nation with a 45-yard kickoff return to the Pinecrest 40-yardline to start the second half. Moments later, facing fourth-and-four, Hodges found some room to his right and sprinted 5 yards to the Pinecrest 29-yardline to keep the drive alive.
After a holding call pushed the Raiders back, Javion Smith (9 carries, 63 yards, 2 TDs) ran for 10 yards on his first carry of the game to get the Raiders back to the original line of scrimmage. Hodges connected with Griggs(2 catches for 75 yards, TD) once again, this time for 26 yards down to the Pinecrest 3-yard line. From there, Smith slipped through the Pinecrest defense for an easy score.
Jacob Veach’s point after attempt was true and the Raiders took a 13-6 third-quarter lead.
The Raider defense held the Patriots to another 3-and-out and after a Pinecrest punt, Richmond took over at the 50-yard stripe.
Smith ran the ball for six consecutive plays picking up 49 yards for Richmond. The Raiders were tagged with a false start along the way, but were in business at the Patriots’ 6-yard line. A pair of carries from Patterson pushed the Raiders to the 1-yard line just before the buzzer sounded signaling the end of the third quarter.
Smith took it in from one yard out on the first play of the fourth quarter. Veach was good on the point after, and the Raiders increased their lead to 20-6 with just under 12 minutes to go.
Pinecrest returned the ensuing kickoff to the 50 yard line. They used a personal foul call against the Raiders and two long passes of 38 and 27 yards to quickly answer. With the two point conversion Pinecrest cut Richmond’s lead to Just six points at 20-14.
The kickoff was bobbled causing the Raiders to jump on the loose ball pinning themselves back at their own 10-yard line. Tyson gave the Raiders some breathing room with an 11-yard run on the first play of the drive. However, Richmond was only able to move the chains once before the drive stalled and it had to give the ball back to Pinecrest.
The Patriots made a valiant effort to steal the game away with one final drive. The rally effort started on their own 39-yard line. After Pinecrest moved the ball inside of the Richmond 30, several Raider defenders managed to get their hands on Pinecrest’s fleeing quarterback before Terande Spencer finally wrapped him up for a nine yard loss. Facing 4th-and-6, the Patriots went to the air, but Jason Gainey sniffed out the short pass and took down the receiver short of the line to gain with just 28 seconds left securing the win.
Tyson finished the game with 9 carries for 27 yards, Patterson ran it 8 times for 20 yards, and Hodges had 11 yards on the ground on four carries. In the air, Hodges was 3-of-5 passing for 73 yards and a touchdown.
The junior varsity football team will next Face Hoke County at a time TBD. Due to Hurricane Ian, this week‘s varsity game has been moved to Thursday. At the time of this release, it is uncertain when the JV game will be played.
