ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond Senior varsity football team dominated the gridiron Friday in a 67-7 home win against the Northwest Guilford Vikings.
Sophomore quarterback Damarion Allen put the Raiders on the scoreboard on the third play after kick-off.
After shutting down the Vikings’ offense, the Raiders regained possession of the ball, leading to a touchdown run by senior wide receiver Keviyon McManus and a successful extra point to put the Raiders up 13-0.
Richmond’s defense again kept Northwest Guildford scoreless, with Allen scoring his second touchdown of the night.
Before the end of the first quarter, senior running back Chance Crowder made it into the end zone to bring the score to 27-0.
In the first play of the second quarter, Allen fumbled the ball but was able to recover it. He kept the ball on the second play for a first down.
The Raiders kept marching up the field with a successful pass to Nyjier Allen, a first-down rush by Jasiah Cooper, and a pass to Crowder, before sophomore linebacker Cam Coley broke several tackles to score.
Later in the second quarter, Ty Covington recovered a fumble and translated that into a diving touchdown, putting the Raiders up 40-0.
On the next play, the Raiders were able to recover on their own kickoff at the 1-yard line. They lost yardage following a fumble, but a pass to Cooper resulted in another touchdown.
With 5:23 left in the first half, Covington nailed two consecutive tackles of Northwest Guilford’s Adam Reavis and Amir Wilks. He would tackle Wilks two more times before going down for an injury.
The Raiders regained possession with 0:57 on the clock — which was long enough for McManus to score his second touchdown of the night and R.J. Moore to make it to the end zone.
The game went into halftime with Richmond Senior up 60-0.
The Raiders scored their final touchdown of the game in the third quarter when junior linebacker Qualee Ellerbe recovered the ball from a blocked fourth-down punt.
With less than 11 minutes to play in the third quarter, senior running back Simeon scored the Vikings’ sole touchdown. The following PAT would be the final point of the game.
“I told the guys all week I wanted to figure out how to get a rhythm,” head coach Brad Denson said after the game. “I’ll be dead honest with you, it was one of our best weeks of practice.”
Denson said Monday and Tuesday were two of the team’s better practice days all season.
“When you practice well, you have fun at practice … things will happen for you come Friday night, and I really do think that’s something that was part of it tonight.”
The coach said he tried to keep the game plan “really simple” so the players felt comfortable on both sides of the ball, adding that the coaching staff of “keeping the guys into it.”
Starting the season off 0-2 — with losses against Hoggard and rival Scotland — Denson said “a lot of things can go south really fast.”
“So that’s a testament to these kids and this staff of just pushing through and staying the course and just trusting the process,” Denson continued. “Those two teams we lost two are pretty good teams — I’m not saying that’s who we should lose to, by any means — but it does feel good to get in the win column.”
Denson told the team in the post-game talk that he would start working on a strategy against their next opponent, West Forsyth, that night.
The previous week’s game, which was halted due to weather, will resume Sept. 28 at Rolesville with a 6:30 p.m. start time. The Raiders will have a quick turnaround to host Pine Forest Oct. 2 for the homecoming game.
See more than 500 photos from Friday night's game at the RO's Facebook page.
