ROCKINGHAM — Homecoming week came to a successful end Friday for the Richmond Senior High School football team and the student body, despite a flurry of yellow flags littering Raider Stadium.
In a battle of unbeatens, the Raiders and first-year head coach Brad Denson took sole possession of first place in the Sandhills Athletic Conference standings.
Hosting Union Pines High School and former Richmond head coach Bryan Till, Richmond shutout the Vikings in the final three quarters to earn a 27-8 victory. It was also the Raiders’ fifth straight win.
Admitting the Raiders need to clean up some things, Denson noted the team “still played hard” in the wake of committing 16 penalties for 141 yards.
Trailing by a point as the first quarter rolled over into the second stanza, Richmond was patient and used a balanced attack on offense to score 20 unanswered points.
The Raiders totaled four touchdowns, all of which came on the ground and were set up by healthy doses from the passing game. Richmond had just 59 rushing yards in the win, while moving the sticks with 392 yards through the air.
Sophomore running back Chance Crowder had his second two-touchdown game of the season, while junior quarterback Domonic Tillman and senior tailback Jordan Bostick each found the end zone one time.
Defensively, the Raiders limited Union Pines to just 80 yards of total offense — 20 rushing and 60 passing.
Richmond also created three takeaways — a first-half interception by senior cornerback and homecoming king Keidreion Crump and fumble recoveries in the final two quarters by senior linebacker Joe Parsons and junior edge rusher Terande Spencer.
A nine-play, 80-yard march to the end zone was the way the Raiders’ offense started the game after receiving the opening kickoff.
Led by junior quarterback Evan Hodges (20-for-27, 264 passing yards), the drive featured five first downs, including a pass from Hodges to Crowder and two more to junior wide receiver Amer Morrison.
On second-and-five, Crowder zipped through the defense for a 17-yard rushing score. Senior kicker Billy West knocked the PAT through the uprights to make it 7-0 with 7:48 to go in the first quarter.
The Richmond defense forced a three-and-out on the Vikings’ first series, which included a tackle-for-loss by senior nose tackle Tate Simpson. But a botched recovery on the punt gave Union Pines new life at the Raiders’ 34-yard line.
Unphased, the defense forced another three-and-out, aided by a combined tackle-for-loss by seniors Zach Gardner and Zy Martin.
Richmond’s next offensive series stalled and resulted in a punt attempt. A high snap over West’s head led to the kicker making a smart play and booting the ball out of the back of the end zone for a safety instead of giving the Vikings the ball inside the 10-yard line.
Getting the ball back on the kickoff, Union Pines used a horse collar penalty and a series of catches to take its only lead of the game.
Quarterback Anthony Goswick found Kaeden Sovey for a 14-yard passing touchdown, finishing an eight-play, 61-yard drive.
On a blitz up the middle, Parsons palmed the PAT attempt and kept Richmond’s deficit to one point, 8-7, with 41 seconds left in the opening stanza.
The Raiders’ final first-half touchdown came on the next drive, which started at their own 43-yard line and also took nine plays.
A first-down pass to junior Keonta Pegues (16 yards) from Tillman (10-for-12, 128 yards) was followed by completions to junior Jayden Hamilton (22 yards) and senior Keyonta Davis (16 yards) to get into the red zone.
Tillman capped the drive on third down at the three-yard line with a QB keeper to the left, barreling through two would-be tacklers for a rushing score.
West was good again and gave Richmond a 14-8 lead with 7:21 left in the second, an advantage that held until the half.
Both teams had three more offensive possessions in the first half. Richmond’s three ended in a turnover on downs, a lost fumble and the clock expiring with the Raiders’ driving in Union Pines territory.
The Vikings punted twice and Goswick threw an interception to Crump two plays after Richmond turned it over. Crump stuck with a bobbled ball and pulled in his team-leading third pick of the season.
To begin the second half, Richmond’s defense forced a quick three-and-out. Following the punt, the Raiders drove into the red zone but turned the ball over on a fumble, which was recovered by Drew Dougherty.
The 11-yard line was a sticking point over the next couple of plays, which is where Dougherty first landed on the loose football. Two plays into that drive, Goswick mishandled a snap and fumbled, which was recovered by Parsons at the Vikings’ 11-yard line.
That turnover was the first of two takeaways by the Richmond defense that resulted in a pair of touchdowns.
Backed up and facing a third-and-18, Tillman connected a 17-yard completion to Morrison, who made several big catches all game to give the offense short-yardage situations and first downs.
On fourth-and-one from the two-yard line, Bostick lined up in the wildcat formation and punched through the line for his lone score of the game and team-leading eighth rushing touchdown of the season.
Going for two, Hodges almost connected with Spencer in the back of the end zone but the throw was just out of reach. With 4:20 to go in the third, Richmond led 20-8.
Union Pines (5-2, 2-1 SAC) answered by making progress on its next possession and crossed midfield to get into Richmond territory. But a catch by Jeffrey Leone was popped loose by the Raider defense, which was recovered by Spencer, his third recovery this fall.
That turnover gave the Raiders the ball at their own 23-yard line, which set in motion a 13-play, 77-yard drive that milked the clock and ended in another Crowder rushing score.
Key plays on the drive featured a Bostick rush from the wildcat on fourth-and-three for a first down to get near the red zone, as well as a pass from Tillman to Morrison for seven yards to get inside the 10-yard line.
A holding call backed Richmond up to the 17-yard line on the next play, but a pitch to Crowder saw him speed his way in along the right side across the goal line. West was good one more time on the PAT and extended Richmond’s lead to 27-8 with 5:27 left in regulation.
Till and the Vikings got two more offensive possessions but were forced to punt on the first series and saw the second one end with a Spencer sack on Goswick as the clock expired.
Now 6-2 overall and the lone undefeated team in the conference with a 4-0 record, the Raiders are set to play their final regular-season away game next week.
Richmond will visit Lee County High School (4-3, 1-2 SAC), which lost to Pinecrest High School 34-16 Friday.
The Richmond Observer will publish a photo gallery of Richmond’s homecoming win over Union Pines this weekend.
Sports editor’s note: Unofficial stats and game totals were provided by Union Pines’ statistician Reggie Till.
