ROCKINGHAM — A tale of two halves for the Richmond Raider football team Friday saw its first-half lead overshadowed by what head coach Brad Denson called “extremely selfish” football in the final two quarters.
In a rematch of last season’s third-round playoff game, Richmond couldn’t sustain its four-point lead at the break against Rolesville High School.
The Rams outscored Richmond 28-6 in the final two quarters, leading to a 38-20 defeat for the Raiders.
Denson was quick to call out Richmond’s continued trouble with personal foul penalties, something that has hindered otherwise productive offensive and defensive drives during the first three games of the season.
For instance, during two of Rolesville’s four scoring drives in the second half, two personal fouls on long-yardage situations breathed new life for the Rams and led two trips to the end zone.
The Raiders’ offense also went dormant in the second half, scoring only in its opening drive of the third quarter. Richmond’s final three drives resulted in two punts and a turnover on downs.
Showing flashes of lightning in a bottle on both sides of the ball against a quality opponent, Denson added that consistency is key in everything the Raiders do moving forward.
Two of Richmond’s scores were passing touchdowns — one thrown from senior quarterback Evan Hodges and senior wide receiver Keonta Pegues apiece. Catching those scores were junior running back Chance Crowder and senior wide receiver Jayden Hamilton, respectively.
Crowder had Richmond’s other score on the ground.
Rolesville found the end zone three times on the rush by running back Amir Brown, which came on the Rams’ final three drives.
Two passing scores from quarterback Kaleb Williams found Anthony Roberts and Gavin Waddell. Rolesville also had a field goal.
The first half saw both teams go on scoring runs, starting with the first 14 points by the Raiders, followed by 10 points by the Rams.
Rolesville was sneaky on the opening kickoff, surprising Richmond with a successful onside kick. But the Raider defense held tough inside the red zone to force a field goal attempt.
On first down from the 13-yard line, senior defensive tackle Monte Martin made a tackle-for-loss. That was followed by a combined pass breakup from seniors Preston Fann and Jayden Hamilton.
On third-and-goal, senior linebacker Jermaine Bright exploded into the backfield to drag Williams down for a quarterback sack. Attempting a 45-yard field goal, Rolesville’s kicker was wide left.
Taking over at its own 20-yard line, Richmond scored on its opening drive, an eight-play, 80-yard march. Hodges made a completion of 23-yards to senior wide receiver Amer Morrison on the sixth play to get to the Rams’ 28-yard line.
Hodges set up the touchdown with an 18-yard scramble to the 10-yard line on the next play. On first-and-goal, a short pass to Crowder around the left edge scored the first touchdown of the game.
Senior specialist Jake Veach was good on the point-after attempt to make it 7-0 with 4:19 left in the opening quarter.
Another strong stand by the Richmond defense led to a three-and-out on Rolesville’s second series. On the punt attempt, a trio of Raiders crashed the punter and sophomore Ty Covington blocked it. Recovering the ball at the Rams’ 30-yard line was senior linebacker Terande Spencer, one of the three players on the rush.
Needing just six plays to find pay dirt again, Richmond converted on fourth-and-13 from the Rolesville 23-yard line. This time Hodges hit Morrison, who spun out of a defender’s grasp and collected several yards after the catch to get to the six-yard line.
On the next play from scrimmage, Crowder stayed low between the blocks and burst ahead for the six-yard rushing score. Another Veach PAT extended Richmond’s lead to 14-0 with 11:16 remaining in the first half.
The Rams scored on their next two possessions to cut their deficit to 14-10, which would hold until halftime. The first score was a 40-yard pass from Williams to Roberts.
Richmond managed to hold the Rams to a field goal attempt after a long punt return set up short field. Spencer batted a pass at the line on first down and Bright broke up a pass on third down with the Rams at the Richmond 11-yard line.
Attempting the 28-yard kick, Rolesville split the uprights to cut its deficit to 14-10 with 5:55 to go in the second quarter.
Both teams’ final drives of the half ended without a score. Richmond stalled near midfield and punted and a quarterback pressure by Martin led to an intentional grounding call to help run out the game clock a series later.
The second half started much like how the first half ended, as both teams traded touchdowns to flip-flop the score. Rolesville capped a 56-yard opening drive with a passing score to Waddell that was aided by a personal foul penalty on third-and-15.
The Rams took their first lead of the game 17-14 with 10:32 left in the third stanza.
Richmond answered with an 11-play, 80-yard drive to leapfrog ahead to a 20-17 advantage. Helping move the sticks were a defensive pass interference call and a 38-yard strike from Hodges on a roll out to his right that was caught by Hamilton above a defensive back.
Setting up first-and-10 at the Rams’ 13-yard line, Richmond scored three players later on a trick play. Hodges took the snap and handed it off to a sweeping Pegues, who rolled right and pitched it to a wide-open Hamilton in the end zone.
The six points would be the final scoring for the Raiders, as a bad snap on PAT didn’t allow Veach the chance to kick.
Ahead by three points with 5:39 on the third quarter clock, Richmond’s defense made its only stop in the second half on the next drive. With the help of another Bright pass breakup on third down, the Raiders made the Rams (1-2) go three-and-out and punt.
As the clock expired in the third quarter, Brown scored the first of his three second-half touchdowns to put Rolesville ahead for good. He scored on a carry from seven yards out following the other costly personal foul call.
After a Richmond punt, Brown scored another rushing touchdown on fourth down, a 33-yard scamper. His final trip to the end zone was a 10-yard rush after a turnover on downs by Richmond with the clock winding inside the final two minutes of regulation.
In his postgame huddle with the team, Denson told the Raiders “we are a better team than we showed tonight” and that Richmond “should have been the more disciplined team.”
Richmond (1-2) will try to even its record next Friday in its fourth of five non-conference games to start the season.
The Raiders will travel to Northwest Guilford High School (1-2) and play the Vikings for the first time since the second round of the 2013 4AA state playoffs. Kickoff from Greensboro is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Northwest Guilford lost to Northern Guilford High School 42-7 Friday.
The Richmond Observer will publish a preview article later in the week. A photo gallery of Friday’s game will be published this weekend.
Sports editor’s note: No official statistics were available at the time of publication.
