Never, since the first Gatorade shower, has a tub of ice water felt so good on a chilly night.

And never, in the history of football, has a team cheered so loudly for a single statement:

“Monday, practice at 3:15!” yelled South Rowan head coach Rick Vanhoy after his squad dominated Mount Tabor in the second half of Friday night’s 27-14 win. South’s third straight victory, all against the Forsyth County schools, put the Raiders at 3-1 in the 4A Central Piedmont Conference and into the state playoffs.

“I’m just so happy for these kids, this is just a great group, especially our seniors,” Vanhoy said. “I’ve always wanted something good to happen for them. They’ve had two difficult seasons, and this one didn’t start out that well.”

South celebrated 16 seniors on what turned out to be the team’s final regular season game, not season finale. After struggling to a 4-18 mark over the past two seasons and opening the 1999 season at 1-7, the Raiders beat West Forsyth, R.J. Reynolds and Mount Tabor to finish 4-7 overall. But the 3-1 CPCmark is the one that matters most.

The playoffs start next week, and South is in thanks to a great defensive effort.

“In the whole first half their offense was doing to our defense what our offense was doing to their defense,”said South junior linebacker Joel Reyes, who intercepted two passes. “We knew we couldn’t put it all on the offense.”

South raced out of the gate to score first when QBTim Cook found tight end Daniel Pinyan in the end zone from 15 yards out at the 6:39 mark of the first quarter. But the Spartans (3-7, 1-3 CPC) answered with a 34-yard run from Marquis Newman to tie the game.

On the Raiders’ ensuing possession, South sat at third-and-12 when Cook dropped back to pass. He hit a wide open — by some 15 yards — Tore’ Girty in the middle of the field and the junior running back did the rest for an 82-yard score.

“Oh, man!” Girty exclaimed. “I just went through the middle, got hit and turned around and the ball was there. I didn’t want to get hit by anybody, I just turned up the speed.”

South’s defense still couldn’t stop Mount Tabor runners A.J. Nicholson and Newman. Both churned out big gains to set up a 26-yard reverse by wideout Willie Damon that tied the score at 14-all. Robby Basinger’s 37-yard field goal with 2:14 left in the half put South up at halftime, but the Raiders weren’t satisfied with their play.

“I don’t know what happened,”Reyes said. “We went in there (at halftime) and got chewed out. They (the coaches) knew we weren’t playing like we’re supposed to, but the past couple of games we’ve been getting the job done when it counted.”

In South’s winning streak, the Raider defense shut out West in the second half and Reynolds in the fourth quarter, allowing the offense to do its part in the come-from-behind wins. Friday night’s test against Mount Tabor proved no different.

After surrendering 215 yards of total offense in the first half, South allowed just 68 yards in the final 24 minutes. The Spartans’ best scoring chance came on its second drive after halftime, when a successful fourth-down run put Mount Tabor 35 yards away from the end zone.

Damon, who ran in the last TD on a reverse, again came across the field for a big gain. But Raider Darryl Childers, one of those seniors honored before the game, ripped the ball out of Damon’s arms and started running the other way. The Spartans punted on their next drive, and sophomore Jay Phillips ended Mount Tabor’s hopes with an interception late in the fourth quarter.

“We decided we weren’t going to let them do anything,”Phillips said. “The offense was really doing their job, we knew it was time to do ours.”

The Raider offense capped a 49-yard drive with Darryl Childers’ easy 9-yard scoring run that extended the lead to 24-14 with 5:56 left in the third quarter. Following the Phillips interception, Basinger knocked home a 29-yard field goal to collect the final three points.

All that remained was the postgame celebration and those two buckets of ice water dumped on Vanhoy’s head.

“They turned it up in the second half and that’s the sign of a good football team,” Vanhoy said. “Regardless of what we’ve done before these wins, we’ve got a good football team.”