ROCKINGHAM — Favored to lose by three scores to an 8A opponent. Trailing for more than three full quarters. Facing a nine-point deficit midway through the fourth quarter.
Those were some of the obstacles the Richmond Senior High School football team faced in its non-conference finale Friday. But none of them were too much to overcome for the Raiders and head coach Brad Denson.
The only things that mattered in the end were the final score and the name across the front of the gold jerseys celebrating in the west end zone.
Down but never out, Richmond completed a storybook fourth-quarter comeback to defeat West Forsyth High School 36-30.
Trailing by as many as 13 points in both halves, Richmond rallied to the call of Denson and the coaching staff to “find a way to win.”
In the postgame huddle, an emotional Denson reminded the team “this is why” it continues to play through the adversity, gesturing to “Raiders” printed on the front of senior Domonic Tillman’s jersey.
In what public address announcer Jim Butler called “an instant classic,” Richmond erased a nine-point deficit and scored 15 unanswered points in the game’s final 5:50.
The play of the night was the result of the punt team’s effort, which came late in the fourth quarter on West Forsyth’s first punt of the game and led to the game-winning score.
Sophomore Ty Covington continued his breakout season and broke through the line to block the punt near the 25-yard line. The bouncing ball was scooped up by senior Preston Fann inside the 10-yard line, who kept his balance long enough to cross into the end zone.
That special teams touchdown, and the ensuing successful two-point conversion, gave Richmond a 36-30 lead with 3:13 to play, the first time it held an advantage all night.
Senior quarterback Evan Hodges extended the two-point try by rolling to his right and completed a pass to junior Chance Crowder along the far sideline to put Richmond up by six points.
To help put the win on ice, senior Jayden Hamilton intercepted a pass near midfield three plays into West Forsyth’s next drive. He jumped the route and pulled the ball away from the intended receiver at the Richmond 48-yard line with 2:46 on the clock.
Connecting the dots to Covington and Fann’s timely tandem touchdown were two first half scores and two passing touchdowns in the second half.
Hodges finished the game with three passing scores. The first went to senior Keonta Pegues in the first quarter, and he found senior Amer Morrison in the end zone twice in the final two quarters to set up the comeback.
Covington recorded Richmond’s other first-half touchdown, a rushing score on a burst play on the team’s final drive with less than a minute before the half.
It wasn’t smooth sailing for the Raiders early on, as the Titans’ offense jumped out to a 13-0 lead after their first two drives.
Richmond struggled to stop the run and pass on an 11-play, 80-yard drive to start the game. Quarterback Haines Robitzer found Darell Page for a 15-yard passing score to give West Forsyth the lead with 7:07 left in the first.
Richmond punted on its first drive, the first of three punts in the opening half. The Titans needed just five plays to go 64 yards and score again.
Crossing into the end zone on a 29-yard scamper was Page. Going for two, the Titans were stopped by a host of Raiders, led by senior Jermaine Bright to keep it 13-0 with just under four minutes left in the opening quarter.
Answering on their second offensive series, the Raiders moved the ball 80 yards on six plays to get on the board. Back-to-back completions from Hodges to Morrison netted 18 yards, and the drive was aided thanks to a 17-yard run by Covington. The Titans were flagged for a face mask on Covington’s run to move the ball to the West Forsyth 26-yard line.
Two plays later, a shovel pass from Hodges to a sweeping Pegues around the left edge resulted in a 15-yard passing score. Senior Jake Veach split the uprights to make it a 13-7 deficit with 1:32 to go in the first.
Finding its footing, Richmond’s defense dug deep on the next two West Forsyth offensive drives to stop the Titans deep in its own territory, two stops that proved critical at the final whistle. The Raiders forced turnovers on downs at their own 22 and 14-yard lines, respectively.
The first drive slowed down thanks to a sack by junior Jeremiah Covington on first down, followed by back-to-back stops by Bright on a pair of completions on third and fourth down.
Hamilton and Tillman each recorded a pass break up on the second series stop, this time in the red zone. West Forsyth went for it on fourth down but a ball intended for a receiver in the end zone was no good.
Richmond couldn’t do anything offensively after the turnover on downs and gave the ball back on a punt. That led to the Titans’ final score of the half, a two-yard rush by Mozes Morris with 48 seconds on the clock.
Extending the scoring drive was an encroachment penalty by the Raiders on fourth-and-five with the Titans’ punt team on the field at its own 36-yard line.
Not to be outdone, the Raiders’ offense answered once more before heading into the locker room. Richmond went 65 yards on three plays, culminating in a 60-yard rushing score by Covington down the left sideline.
Veach made the PAT with 12 seconds left and the defense made a couple of stops to go into halftime down 20-14.
That late-half momentum was undone with an interception on the first drive of the second half. West Forsyth (3-2) took over at its 40-yard line and scored five plays later on a Morris two-yard rushing score.
Down 27-14 with 7:41 to go in the third, Denson’s play calling and the offense responded with a seven-play, 80-yard scoring drive.
Thanks to a trio of runs by Crowder, coupled with a personal foul call against the Titans, Richmond moved to midfield. A 20-yard completion from Hodges to Hamilton, followed by a shovel pass to Covington, set up second down at the Titans’ 22-yard line.
A screen pass to Morrison in the left flat seemed to go nowhere until he reversed sides of the field and turned on the jets to get around the right edge for a 22-yard touchdown. Another Veach PAT, who went 4-for-4 in the game, again pulled Richmond within one possession, 27-21, with 3:29 remaining in the third.
A couple of tackles-for-loss by senior Terande Spencer on the next defensive series forced a 37-yard field goal attempt that sailed wide right as the game rolled into the fourth quarter.
Richmond’s only punt of the second half followed, and the Titans recorded their final points on the next series. Thanks to stops by Bright and junior Alijah Flowers, along with a pass break-up in the end zone by Morrison, West Forsyth was held to a field goal attempt.
This time, the 32-yard kick was good and put the visitors up nine points with 5:50 left in regulation.
That’s when the Raiders went into two-minute drill mode and took the game over.
Hamilton started the comeback with a kickoff return from his own one-yard line to the Titans’ 39-yard line. Denson said he told the offense they were going to score on the first play, which it did.
Hodges lasered a pass over the middle of the field to Morrison, who eluded several defenders on his way to the end zone on a 39-yard house call. Just 18 seconds after the field goal, Veach was good for a final time to creep Richmond closer on the scoreboard 30-28.
Setting up the blocked punt and touchdown were stops by senior Daylyn Robinson and the defensive front on second and third downs of the next drive, respectively.
Following Fann’s first career touchdown and Hamilton’s interception, Crowder picked up a big first down run to allow Hodges to kneel the ball on consecutive plays to put the Raiders above the .500 mark.
Richmond (3-2) will enter its bye week in Week 6 before starting Mid-South Conference play Friday, Oct. 3 on the road at Pine Forest High School (1-4).
The earliest bye week in at least the past eight seasons, Richmond will begin its quest for the inaugural MSC title against a Trojans team that lost four of its five non-conference games to begin the new season. Pine Forest lost to Cape Fear High School 36-8 Friday.
When the Raiders travel to Pine Forest during the first Friday in October, it will be the first time since 2018 the two teams have played. Richmond won that non-conference matchup 28-0.
The Richmond Observer will publish a preview article later in the week. A photo gallery of Friday’s win will be published this weekend.
Sports editor’s note: No official statistics were available at the time of publication.
