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LANDIS — South Rowan’s Raiders cashed in on their opportunities here Friday night and defeated Mooresville for the first time in six years.
Coach Rick Vanhoy’s Raiders, 27-20 winners in the non-conference high school football game, recovered all five of Mooresville’s fumbles and turned three of the Blue Devils’ turnovers into touchdowns.
“During our pregame meal, our speaker (RustyInman) talked to us about seizing the opportunity. That’s just what we told them to do: Go out and seize the opportunity,” said Vanhoy.
South, 4-1, is off to its best start since the 1994 team started out 5-1. The Raiders have also won seven of their last eight regular-season games going back to the last three weeks of 1999.
“Last year we finished off strong (Central Piedmont Conference wins over West Forsyth, R.J. Reynolds and Mount Tabor to capture a 4A playoff berth). It took us 11 weeks to win four football games,” said Vanhoy. “We had an opportunity tonight to win four games in the first five weeks. ...The fact that we’ve won four games in five weeks is obviously a tremendous credit to these kids and how well they’ve played so far.”
Ricky Childers, Reggie McConneaughey, Matt Shoemaker, Piercen Pozyck and Brad Lanning all recovered fumbles for the Raiders. McConneaughey, Shoemaker and Pozyck set up touchdowns with their defensive plays.
McConneaughey’s recovery of quarterback Courtney Patterson’s fumble early in the second quarter and a 38-yard runback gave South the ball at the Mooresville 40. Running back Keith Garrett broke through the line for a touchdown on the next play. South led 7-0 after Robbie Basinger’s conversion.
“Tore’ (Girty) laid a heck of a block for me,” said the speedy Garrett, “and allI did was cut it back. We got the defense flowing one way, and we cut it back the other way. It was just speed — off to the races.”
Garrett wound up with 133 yards rushing in 21 carries to account for a big part of the Raiders’ 203 total yards.
South, prior to Garrett’s 40-yard run, had 0 net yards, so Mooresville’s defense had to believe it could hold down the Raiders.
Seconds later, however a jarring tackle by Matt Shoemaker of the Raiders on the ensuing kickoff plus the senior’s fumble recovery forced that Mooresville defense back out onto the field.
“I was having fun,” said Shoemaker, a stocky 5-9, 185-pounder. “I was just going down there looking for somebody to it. It turned out to be him (Mooresville kick returner Chris Winford). I was waiting for somebody to hit me. Fortunately, nobody did it, soI just laid it out on him. I didn’t know the ball had come loose when I hit him. WhenI found them scrambling around,I started fighting for it, too.”
“He(Shoemaker) ain’t big on size, but by gosh he’ll bring a load every time he comes,” said Vanhoy. “I think that sort of told Mooresville, ‘Hey, we’re in a ballgame tonight.’”
Shoemaker’s recovery at the Mooresville 16 led to halfback Girty’s 15-yard run, then a 1-yard scoring run. Basinger made it 14-0 with his conversion.
Basinger made it 17-0 with the longest field goal in South history, 48 yards, with two seconds left in the half. The senior had almost matched the second longest field goal in county history in the first quarter when his 51-yarder hit the crossbar and bounced back onto the field.
The Raiders stretched that lead to 24-0 on fullback David Ritchie’s 14-yard TD run in the third quarter and Basinger’s extra-point kick.
Coach Mike Carter’s Mooresville club drove from its own 30 to the South 5 before Winford lost another fumble to the Raiders’ Lanning.
The Blue Devils, however, quickly forced a punt and took over at the South 24 following a runback by Winford and a facemask penalty against the Raiders.
Mooresville got its first TD on a 4-yard pass fromPatterson to Ryan Huffman. Childers broke up Patterson’s pass for two extra points, leaving it 24-6.
Jason Rietman of the Blue Devils blocked JoelPatterson’s punt several minutes later, setting up halfbackLonnell Dunn’s 17-yard TD that made it 24-12. Another 2-point pass was deflected by the Raiders at the line of scrimmage.
Basinger, who accounted for nine crucial points, capped off a long South drive with a 21-yard field goal for a 27-12 lead.
Mooresville stayed alive by driving 91 yards after a clipping penalty to score with 4:11 to play. Winford passed to Dunn for two points, pulling the Blue Devils within 27-20.
The visitors’ defense got the ball back quickly by forcing a South punt. Mooresville had possession at its own 32 with 2:37 to go, enough time to score again.
“We were afraid we gave them the ball back with too much time left, and our defense really stepped up,” said Vanhoy.
The Blue Devils got one first down at their 44 before McConneaughey broke up a pass on first down. An ineligible receiver penalty pushed Mooresville back to its 39 and nullified a 19-yard pass completion. After another incomplete pass, end Randy Rigsby finished off the Blue Devils with a 10-yard sack of Patterson, then made another tackle for a 2-yard loss after a fourth-down pass play.
Garrett said beating Mooresville was special.
“We scored the most points on them,I think, since 1994, when they (South) scored 20. That was our goal, to score 21 points, and we accomplished that. Our coaches aid if we scored 21 or more, we’d win the ballgame.”
South, after that 20-13 win over Mooresville in 1994, lost to the Blue Devils by 14, 7, 35, 26 and 18 the next five years.
“That’s one thing on our list for this year is payback,” said Shoemaker. “We’ve got a lot of teams to pay back, starting with Northwest Cabarrus next week.”
South, which has avenged 1999 losses to West Rowan and Mooresville, will go to Northwest Cabarrus (2-2) next Friday night. The Trojans won 27-21 last year.
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