His South Rowan Raiders said — and showed — otherwise.

After a sloppy first half that looked like the battle between 0-3 teams it was, South came out of the locker room and ran over the Salisbury Hornets for a 31-0 victory Friday night. The win was the first of the year for the Raiders of the 4ACentral Piedmont Conference, while 2A Salisbury dropped to 0-4.

“We came out really fired up and ready to get on them,”South running back Keith Garrett said. “He got on us at halftime. We didn’t want it to be the same way at the end of the game.”

Garrett and his teammates smiled about the halftime tongue-lashing they got after the win was secured, but it’s safe to assume they weren’t exchanging grins after trudging to the locker room with only a 14-0 lead. Two turnovers in close scoring range negated most of South’s offensive punch in the opening quarters and turned what should have been a blowout into a matter of concern.

“We felt like we were in control of the ballgame in the first half but we weren’t putting it away,”Vanhoy said. “A 14-0 ballgame is still a ballgame.”

The Raiders went 59 yards on their opening drive of the game to take a quick lead on Ernie Wiggins’ 7-yard run and a Robby Basinger extra point. Salisbury punted quickly and South drove back toward the goal line with equal speed before Tim Cook’s pass was intercepted on the 2 by DeWayne Coward.

South shook off the turnover and scored on its next drive when Cook scrambled and hit Jesse Kirkman from 6 yards out. Basinger added the PAT for a 14-0 lead with 8:36 left in the second quarter.

The Hornets earned their first first down of the night on their next series but set up South with a golden opportunity on Reggie McConneaughey’s interception. Garrett took the ensuing handoff, raced toward the end zone — and fumbled while struggling for more yards at the 3.

“I thought defensively tonight we were outstanding,”Salisbury head coach Raymond Daugherty said. “We turned them back, turned them back at the goal line.”

Another South drive before halftime ended with an interception by Stephen Blanton, and the Raiders settled for their two-touchdown edge despite earning 149 yards to Salisbury’s 24.

Enter Vanhoy, the motivational speaker.

“We knew we could win and we had to go out there and do it,”South tight end Daniel Pinyan said. “He was on us pretty good. We should have been able to execute more than that. His halftime speech really got us fired up.”

At first glance, South emerged too fired up. Hornet Markeice Daugherty returned the opening kickoff to midfield and the Raiders tacked on 15 more yards with a personal foul. But a short run, a big sack from Bryant Casey and an incomplete pass gave the ball back to South.

“I thought we were in the football game at the start of the second half. We got a good return and a penalty and then we didn’t move the football,” Raymond Daugherty said. “We didn’t play well enough offensively and I take the blame for that. I run the offense.”

South’s tailbacks ran the show in the second half. After Basinger connected on a 25-yard field goal to push the advantage to 17-0 with 2:39 left in the third, South reeled off big runs from Jeremy Basinger and Wiggins, who scored on the first play of the fourth quarter from 19 yards out to make it 24-0.

Garrett, Tore’ Girty and Robert Jones got into the act on South’s next drive that went for 65 yards and ended with Garrett’s 4-yard score with less than three minutes to go.

“The running backs did a much better job faking and blocking for each other in the second half,”Vanhoy said. “That made a big difference. Our offensive execution in the second half was as good or better as it was in the second half last week.”

That was South’s 53-31 loss to Kannapolis, one of several games in which the Raiders showed they had improved on last year’s 2-9 showing. But that improvement took four weeks to add up to a single win.

“It’s about time,”Wiggins said. “I’ve been praying for us to win and we finally turned it up that extra notch.”

Salisbury, however, still must search for answers. Newly anointed quarterback Terry Johnson completed only 3-of-16 passes for 11 yards. The bulk of the Hornet offense came in the fourth quarter when linebacker Kenneth Drye went in at tailback and ripped off four runs for 44 yards. Salisbury ended the game with 72 yards of total offense compared to South Rowan’s 368.

“In the first half we played terrible but were still in the game,”Drye said. “I didn’t think we could come out and play any worse, and we did.”