ROCKINGHAM — The Boneyard is where the Richmond Senior High School varsity football team will play Friday night as it looks to keep its perfect season alive.
Ranked as the NCHSAA’s No. 2 team in its most recent adjusted Maxpreps rankings, the Raiders (6-0, 2-0 SAC) will make the trip to No. 6 Jack Britt High School (5-1, 1-1 SAC) for another showdown with a ranked Sandhills Athletic Conference opponent.
This will be Richmond’s fourth game this season against a team ranked in the top 20 of 4A play, and its first road game since Sept. 13. As the playoff picture begins to heat up, Richmond’s slate begins to get a little tougher after beating its first two SAC opponents by a combined score of 71-0.
While receiving the No. 2 recognition is a nice tag for his team’s hard work, Richmond head coach Bryan Till is focusing on a different number ahead of Friday’s “Pink Out” breast cancer awareness game. Two seasons ago, when the Raiders last played at Jack Britt, the Buccaneers stunned Richmond with a 41-20 home win and it’s a game that Till hasn’t forgotten.
“That was the worst game I’ve coached since I’ve become a head coach,” Till admitted. “When we play on Friday, the teams and players will be different, but I know our coaching staff hasn’t forgotten how we felt after that loss.
“There is a natural rivalry with Jack Britt,” he added. “If you look at the history of the games, including the 2008 state championship game, it’s very clear these two teams have a long history and have played in some big games.”
A season ago on their home field, the Raiders sunk the Buccaneers 31-8 behind three passing scores by current junior quarterback Caleb Hood and one rushing score from senior running back Jaheim Covington. With the rubber match set for Friday in Till’s third try, he and the Raiders hope to keep trending in the right direction.
Entering Friday’s contest, the Raiders and Scotland High School are the only two unbeaten teams left in the SAC, and Jack Britt is one of three teams with just one loss (Pinecrest and Hoke County high schools).
Richmond is coming off its second 31+ point shutout of Pinecrest the past two seasons and the sledding has been pretty easy to this point of the season for the Raiders. The offense is averaging 39.8 points per game, while the defense is allowing just 7.3 points per game and has recorded three shutouts.
Hood has thrown for 898 yards and 10 touchdowns on 52 completions and is averaging 149.7 yards per game through the air. He’s added 385 yards on the ground and seven rushing scores. Junior wide receiver Dalton Stroman has made easy work of opposing secondaries, snagging a team-high seven touchdowns and is riding a six-game scoring streak to start the year.
Out of the backfield, Covington leads all rushers with 449 yards on 63 carries (7.1 yards per carry) and has nine rushing scores. He’s scored two touchdowns in each of his last three games. Junior Jaron Coleman continues to fit nicely in the No. 2 hole, having racked up 348 yards on 34 touches for an average of 10.2 yards per attempt.
Richmond’s offense will face a Jack Britt defense that is allowing 20.5 points per game, a number that the Raiders have matched or bettered in the first half in five of their first six games.
“Jack Britt runs a 3-4 defense that sees their linebackers come in from outside. It’s very similar to how we run our defense,” Till said. “They’re known to run a lot of man coverage, but their defense starts with their nose tackle (Karnell Leavell).
“Most 3-4 defenses are like that, and (Leavell) can cover things up so linebackers can flow to the ball freely,” he added. “And their defensive backs are aggressive.”
Leavell has 15 tackles, six of which are for a loss and leads the Bucs with four sacks. Linebackers William Winder and Martin Faulkner lead the team with 39 and 29 tackles, respectively, and Hood will need to be aware of a handful of defensive backs like Tyquan Patterson and Josh Townsend, who are two of six Buccaneers to record one interception this season.
What Till, also Richmond’s defensive coordinator, described as a “normal game week” in terms of preparation for his team, the Raider defense has been preparing for senior quarterback Kevin Sentell and senior wide receiver Anthony Fiffie, the best offensive duo in the SAC.
Sentell has tossed for SAC-bests in passing yards (1,208) and touchdowns (20) through six games. He’s hooked up with Fiffie on 39 of his 89 completions for 602 yards and 12 scores, which are also the best in the SAC, and is averaging 100.8 receiving yards per four quarters.
“(Sentell) spins the ball really well and he finds (Fiffie) most of the time,” Till explained. “(Fiffie) has done a lot for them, but the ball gets spread around to a lot of other guys like Nos. 3 (Jose Brazoban) and 10 (Maurice Wickware), who both have a couple hundred yards.
Jack Britt, which uses a spread offense that’s “all over the place with tight formations, over formations” and uses “a lot of variations” supplements the strong passing game with a solid run game. Mason Walker has 230 yards on 57 carries and three scores. Till said what Jack Britt’s offense is good at is “keeping other teams honest on defense.”
Hoping to help stop Jack Britt’s aerial attack will be junior linebacker and reigning Official Richmond County Male Athlete of the Week CJ Tillman, who is coming off a career night against Pinecrest. He had 18 first-hit tackles, six tackles for loss, two sacks and a forced fumble and he’s looking to carry that momentum with him against Sentell and company.
Behind Tillman’s team-leading 39 tackles are senior safety Dereck Barringer (37 tackles), and senior linebacker Dre Bethea and junior linebacker Jah’meek Harden, both of whom have 25 tackles.
With the ball flying through the air so frequently from Sentell, Till is hoping to see his defense generate some more turnovers. Through six games, just Amir Webb and Xavion Lindsey have caught an interception, but senior cornerback D’Marcus Harrington, who verbally committed to Campbell University earlier this week, will be on the hunt.
When asked if the two previous SAC blowout wins may have made his team stagnant for its first tough opponent of the fall, Till simply said no.
“We love football and our guys love to hit, make contact and make plays,” he said. “This group isn’t stagnant, and the good thing is that our conference is full of competition.”
Kickoff from Fayetteville is set for 7:30 p.m. on Friday.
