By Marny Hendrick
sports@salisburypost.com
LANDIS – From the pre-game prayer to the final kneel down at the end, everything fell into place for the South Rowan Raiders Friday night at Donnell Stadium. Twin touchdowns from Josh Medlin, Nathan Lambert and Antonio Hester did the trick as the Raiders notched their first win of the season with a 40-20 victory over West Iredell.
Normally a pass happy team, South turned to their ground game for the most part on this night, racking up 263 yards and four rushing touchdowns as they opened their North Piedmont schedule on a dominating note.
There were several strange twists and turns in the game but South weathered them all: senior quarterback Nathan Lambert sat out the first period for an undisclosed disciplinary reason, so sophomore Aaron Kennerly got the start and promptly hit Josh Medlin with a 22 yard first quarter TD pass. When Lambert entered the game in the second quarter he also found tight end Medlin for a 12 yard scoring pass that gave the Raiders (1-4, 1-0) the lead they would never reliinquish.
For West Iredell(1-4, 0-1), their fortunes went in the opposite direction as they lost an early 7-0 lead; lost their star quarterback Brett Pope to injury midway in the second period; then lost a total of 73 yards on three errant long snaps that enabled South to expand their lead.
It likely all started with the pre-game prayer by the Rev Terry Brown who asked for the usual good weather, good health, and good sportsmanship then suddenly added, “but Lord, we sure could use a win.” The plea brought a chuckle from the home crowd but it seemd to work. South played their most complete and balanced game of the season, made no turnovers and dominated on defense after giving up over 60 points the previous two games.
One of the top defenders was Rev. Brown’s linebacker son Chandler who was in on about a half dozens tackles for loss and made life miserable for the Warrior offense. It may been devine intervention but Brown just smiled and said, “Our defense really stepped up and I just played football.”
Winning coach Jason Rollins also just smiled when asked if the pre-game prayer helped. “We just needed to get the ball to bounce our way and get started 1-0 in the conference.”, he said. “Everything that has happened in the past we don’t look at. We can only handle what is in front of us.”
West iredell started the game red hot as Pope hit his first four passes to march the Warriors down the field. to a quick 7-0 lead. Preston harrison made the TD catch from 22 yards.
South responded with the two TD passes to Medlin to lead 14-7 at 7:31 before half. Lambert added a two yard run just before half and sealed it in the early third period with a 49 yard TD scramble. Hester then carried the load the rest of the way for South with scoring runs of three and one yards. That made the score 40-7 early in the fourth period and the celebration was already beginning.
“This one is all by our kids,” Rollins stated. “They worked hard this week and it is all about them. It took a lot of heartache to get to this point but it was worth it.”•NOTES: This broke a seven-game losing streak dating back to last season. … Burke Fulcher blocked a field goal in the second quarter that turned the tide for the Raiders. … South 1-0 in the NPC, will play at West Rowan next.
nex week.