“We said tonight we were going to have more running yards than passing yards,”Cavalier quarterback Mario Sturdivant said.

It almost happened in the first half of Friday night’s nonconference game against visiting South Rowan. Then Sturdivant continued to pick apart the Raider defense to lead theCavs to a 29-13 win, and the passing yards won out.

Again.

“The pass was there, too,”Sturdivant added. “It was an either-or situation.”

Sturdivant threw to six different receivers and looked like he could do anything he wanted against the Raiders defense. The senior finished 20-for-31 for 184 yards and also scored on a 2 -yard run to give North (3-3) a 20-6 halftime lead

“I knew I was going to have a good game in warmups,”Sturdivant said. “My arm felt so strong — that was the tightest spiral I’ve ever thrown.”

It also might have been the most running Sturdivant’s done in a while. He took nearly every snap from 8 yards deep in the shotgun, then darted left or right to give the bigger but slower South lineman something else to think about. He was sacked only once, but not when the game was on the line.

Sturdivant collected 23 yards on his first pass of the night when he found Alfonzo Miller between two defenders. Running back Jamel Alexander ended that eight-play drive with a 4-yard touchdown run for a 6-0 lead, but South (1-6) responded with some solid passing of its own.

Raider QB Tim Cook didn’t use his three backfield mates except for play fakes and blocking in the early going. He connected on several nice throws to put South in scoring position, then found a wide open Keith Garrett in the middle of the end zone from 11 yards out to tie the game at 6-all.

“We’ve really worked on throwing the football in practice,”Cook said. “The play fake and the bootleg were working great for us, we’ve just got to keep concentrating and stay focused on every play.”

Sturdivant and Alexander went back to work on North’s next drive, with the quarterback completing four throws for 32 yards and the tailback finishing the job with a nifty 24-yard scamper after making a South defender miss him in the backfield.

TheCavs got the ball back at midfield after a punt and needed just five plays on long passes to Graham Hosch and Andre Byrd to set up Sturdivant’s 2-yard sneak into the end zone. The second of two successful point-after kicks — the first of the year — from Kevin Rutherford made it 20-6.

That drive put Sturdivant’s passing yardage ahead of North’s rushing total, but barely — 93 yards to 91.

South’s yardage took a big jump and then a big step back on its last drive of the first half, the one head coach Rick Vanhoy said turned the game around.

Garrett reeled off a big run and Cook had a 16-yard quarterback sneak behind big linemen Tripp Isenhour, Brian Billings and Patrick Gaddy to help put the Raiders first-and-goal at the 9.

North called a timeout to regroup the defense and South’s offense started moving in the wrong direction. Cook sent an option pitch to Tore’ Girty that ended up on the ground before Cook covered it for a 12-yard loss. Cook’s throw on second down came when he was past the line of scrimmage, and South’s third-down play netted an intentional grounding call because of Brian Alford’s big rush. Staring at fourth-and-goal from the 32, Cook’s next pass fell incomplete.

“They did a good job bottling us up in the first half. We had to try to do something different,”Vanhoy said. “Offensively we were up and down. We’d have a good series and a bad series.”

The second half belonged to Sturdivant and the North defense, which forced a fumble and a quick punt in the third quarter.

The Cavaliers moved the ball up and down the field and took a 23-6 lead early in the fourth, and after Girty pulled South within 23-13 with 5:48 remaining, Sturdivant delivered a third-down completion to Hosch that sealed the win.

“Mario is a great quarterback, I love watching him,”Cook said. “They kept getting first down after first down, driving and driving …”

And without even trying — or so it seemed. Sturdivant had to work hard for his 184 yards. The Cavalier ground game was nipping at his heels with 141 yards, after all.

“That’s part of the game. You just have fun and do what you do — get open so Mario can throw it to you,”Hosch said. “He says, ‘If you’re open I’m gonna throw it to you,’ and that’s how it’s been since Day 1.”