ROCKINGHAM — Thursday’s home opener 7-on-7 scrimmage for the Richmond Senior High School football team was muggy, but the Raiders turned up the heat even more on visiting Cape Fear High School.
Playing on the lower practice field on Richmond’s campus, the Raiders welcomed in the Colts, which is the team third-year head coach Bryan Till got his head coaching career started with. The hour-long scrimmage saw both teams’ top offensive and defensive skill position players play a total of six series each.
The day began with two 10-play drives, followed by four “live action” drives that required the offenses to go 20 yards to record a first down on a 60-yard field. Richmond’s defense wouldn’t allow a single touchdown on the day, holding Cape Fear to just 14-of-32 passing.
The Raider defense, coordinated by Till, also forced two sacks (recorded when the opposing quarterback held the ball for four seconds), caused several pass breakups and rising junior CJ Tillman had the day’s lone interception.
Offensively, Richmond split the quarterbacking duties between starter and rising junior Caleb Hood and rising senior Noah Altman. The duo would find the end zone on five of the six drives, with Hood tossing four and Altman adding one. Five different receivers would haul in a score.
During the two 10-play drives, Hood and Altman rotated after five plays.
“Summer is all about preparing our quarterbacks, so we let Noah go out there first,” quarterback coach Jay Jones said. “That gave him the feeling of knowing what it’d be like if Caleb would ever not be able to play. Noah did some things well today, especially since he was dealing with a sore arm.
“Caleb had a phenomenal day,” he added. “He’s doing so much more pre-snap work this year and he’s confident knowing where guys (on defense) are going to be. Caleb is on the level now of understanding what other defenses are trying to accomplish and how he’s going to work around it. He’s the most confident I’ve seen him.”
Unofficial stats show Hood finished the day 13-for-23 with 255 passing yards and four touchdowns. Altman wasn’t far behind, going 9-for-15 through the air with 110 yards and one score. Neither threw an interception.
On the first offensive series, Altman started off 3-for-5 and got Richmond 15 yards down field. Hood’s first throw on the sixth play of the drive saw rising junior wide receiver Dalton Stroman make a leaping grab over a defensive back inside the five-yard line. On the next play, Hood connected with rising junior wideout Jakolbe Baldwin across the middle for the team’s first tally.
Rising junior Dayon Bright had a solid second defensive series against Cape Fear, nearly picking off a pass on the fifth play. He added another pass breakup on the final play of the drive, while rising sophomore Traveon Short also got his hands between the ball and an intended receiver.
Richmond’s second offensive drive, its final 10-play march, saw Stroman make three more completions, two of which he used his 6-4 frame to tower over DBs to make athletic grabs. A 25-yard catch and run from Hood to Stroman on the 10th play resulted in Richmond’s second touchdown.
Entering the live action drives, Cape Fear’s first pass attempt was picked by Tillman, which by 7-on-7 rules, resulted in a pick-six. After a four-and-out by the Colts following the pick, Hood took just two plays to find the end zone. He launched a 60-yard missile to rising senior Zierre McCray, who hauled it in for the score.
The Raider defense forced four-and-outs on the remaining three Cape Fear drives, holding the visiting team to just 25 combined yards. Hood went 5-for-6 on Richmond’s fourth drive, finding younger brother and rising sophomore receiver Kellan Hood for three completions and 30 yards.
To cap the drive, rising senior Alex Branch snagged a 15-yard touchdown in the left corner of the end zone.
Altman’s best drive of the day came on Richmond’s fifth drive, as he completed all five of his pass attempts. He connected with Baldwin, Stroman and rising junior Tremel Jones before lacing a pass through traffic to rising junior Jarrod Morrison for a five-yard touchdown.
“I was really pleased overall,” Till said of his team’s efforts on both sides of the ball. “The offense was working on some new route concepts and it’s important to try those things against a fresh team. The quarterback play was really good and Caleb and Noah put the ball where our guys could go and catch it.
“Dalton had a phenomenal day and we’re not surprised by that. It’s exciting to see him come out here and make those types of catches,” he added.
Both Till and Jones noted that 7-on-7s sometimes have the tendency to allow football players to “create bad habits” compared to what’s needed to win on Friday nights. But Till was adamant that those lulls are avoidable, especially with the right coaching.
“The biggest thing we do to avoid that is our coaches are coaching all the time and are consistent in what they’re teaching our kids,” Till said. “We don’t want to get into bad habits, and defense can see bad habits develop a little easier than offense. The guys stay in a base defense to try and not let that happen.”
Above the scrimmages on the upper practice field, the offensive and defensive lines for both teams were competing against one another in agility drills and obstacle courses. To cap the day, linemen faced off against each other in one-on-one drills.
The Raiders will take a break from competition and head to the University of South Carolina on Friday for a one-day camp. The next 7-on-7 will be at home on Wednesday against Cheraw High School, starting at 10 a.m.
