LANDIS— South Rowan got to showcase the good hands of several of its unheralded receivers on Friday night.
All it took was West Forsyth’s quarterbacks to give them a chance.
The Raiders defense intercepted five passes, including three in the first quarter, to cruise to a 52-20 win against the Titans.
West Forsyth lined up from the shotgun with three and four wideouts, but the Titans’ passes ended up in the hands of the Raiders early and often.
“Every team that spreads the receivers out like that, we always have success with them,”said Raider defensive back Brad Lanning, who had one pick. “Just lay a couple licks, they ain’t going to want to catch it no more.”
In the first half, South’s defenders caught as many passes as the two offenses combined.
West’s trouble started with 5:19 left in the first quarter, when Keith Clark intercepted Titan quarterback Thomas Richmond. Lanning picked off Richmond on the next series to set up South’s first TD, which was scored on a 41-yard pass from Andrew Morgan to a legitimate receiver, Brandon Yow.
Three plays into West’s next drive, Raider linebacker Jay Phillips got in on the action. He snatched up a Richmond offering and returned it 23 yards to the Titan 13. David Ritchie plunged in for a score four plays later to put South
(4-3, 1-0 in the CPC) ahead 17-0 with 11:39 left in the half.
“They were giving us short stuff, and we kept trying to force it deep,”West Forsyth coach Russell Stone said. “They made some nice plays. Big plays were the three early picks, it put us in a deep hole.”
Said South coach Rick Vanhoy, “We’ve had a little bit of success against those teams. We had heard they had gone to a shotgun, and when I turned the film on Saturday and saw them in the shotgun, I felt pretty good.”
The Raiders picked off two more passes in the second half, including a 12-yard return for a touchdown by Dale Rice to finish off the scoring in the fourth quarter.
Twenty-eight of South’s points came off turnovers, including 21 of its 31 first-half points. The Raiders final touchdown of the half followed a crushing hit by Lanning on Titan running back Harold Bennett.
Facing a fourth-and-1 at the South 48, Bennett ran left to the 44 and was met head on by the “Hitman.” Lanning knocked the ball eight yards in the other direction back to the West 48, where Anthony Rhyne pounced on the ball.
“I can’t really describe it because I didn’t see the ball get knocked in the air,” Lanning said. “I just hit him. People told me after the game I should watch it on the replay.”
There were many plays worth revisiting for South on Friday. Yow made a fine individual effort on his long touchdown to put the Raiders ahead 10-0.
Morgan rolled right and released a lofted pass in the direction of Yow and Titan defensive back Tez Sansbury. Yow won a jump ball at the 2-yard line despite pass interference by Sansbury, and he walked in for the score.
“I just jumped up for it, he gave me a good little push, but it wasn’t that bad,”Yow said.
The Raiders didn’t complete another pass the rest of the game, but they didn’t need to. South pounded out 387 yards on the ground, led by Henry Norman’s 171 rushing yards on 19 carries.
Norman had been held pretty well in check before his 39-yard TD run near the end of the first half, which was his eighth carry of the game. It was his first of five carries on the night to gain at least 10 yards.
“I had to be patient a lot,”Norman said. “After a while, the defense just started letting down, that’s when everything started opening up.”
The Raiders also got a surprise contribution in the running game from Phillips, who entered the contest with one carry for no yards.
Not that Phillips was shocked. He had been working at fullback in practice and was waiting for his chance to shine in a game.
Phillips had four carries for 53 yards and two touchdowns against the Titans (1-6, 0-1).
“That was crazy wasn’t it?” Phillips said. “I work all the time on it. They give me the ball, I score all the time in practice. I came out in the game, I was just trying to run as hard as I could.”
Phillips, like many of his teammates, even got the opportunity to do that with the ball on defense on Friday night.
NOTES:West Forsyth made the game interesting with two defensive touchdowns in the final 1:07 of the first half. Steven Rozina returned an interception 59 yards for a score, then David Heck returned a fumble the exact same distance with 18 seconds remaining before the break.
“We thought we were back in the game at the time, we had a chance,”Stone said.
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Contact Bret Strelow at 704-797-4258 or bstrelow@salisburypost.com
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