By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

LANDIS — A homecoming crowd charged out of the bleachers and rushed the field to embrace a victorious South Rowan football team on Friday.

It was a storybook win for the Raiders who somehow came back from a 20-0 deficit to beat Central Cabarrus, 29-26, in a South Piedmont Conference game.

South had lost 14 straight SPC games since returning to the 3A league after spending four years in 2A, so it was a breakthrough for head coach Chris Walsh, his staff, the players and a still-loyal fan base.

South had lost 17 straight conference games, dating back to the Raiders’ days in the 2A Central Carolina Conference.

South had lost eight straight to Central’s Vikings, since winning in 2010.

Landon Richards carried the ball 44 times for South, which may be some sort of record. The NCHSAA doesn’t include “most carries” in its official record book, but 44 has to be up there.

It seemed like KP Parks carried the ball almost every play some nights for West Rowan in the glory days of the Falcons and Parks put up stats that broke state and national records, but even Parks never had 44 carries. He set his career high with 40 carries against Davie County in the 2007 season.

Since Richards carried the ball 44 times there wasn’t much mystery about what the play call was going to be for the Raiders, but Richards, South’s offensive line and Conner Richards, the fullback who was the lead blocker for his older brother, still made it work. Landon Richards rushed for 250 yards and scored three touchdowns.

The Vikings (1-5, 0-3) aren’t great, but they’ve usually had their way with South and were favored to win. The visitors came out like they were going to pound the Raiders. It was 20-0 by the end of the first quarter.

Central’s (Zach Bevilacqua) is a great coach and it took us a bit to get going,” Walsh said. “We knew we had a good plan in place, but it took longer than we wanted to, to get going. Credit to our staff and the boys that even down 20-0 everyone was locked in.”

South’s comeback when Brooks Overcash hit tight end Alex Furr with a 10-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter.

South couldn’t get off a field goal attempt at the end of the half and trailed 20-7 at the break.

The Raiders (2-4, 1-2) went with a smash-mouth approach in the second half and got rolling. Richards broke two almost identical touchdown runs from near the Central 25, getting to the corner and plowing anyone who got in his way. Jadon Moore was kicking PATs. His third one put South ahead 21-20.

But the drama was just starting. Central regrouped scored and went up 26-21.

South’s drive for the decisive touchdown in the final minutes almost stalled at the Central 7, where the Raiders faced a fourth-and-2,

Landon Richards obviously was going to get the ball. Everyone in the stadium knew it, but he still got the critical first down at the 5, with his brother making the key block.

“Definitely the key play of the game right there,” Walsh said.

After two more runs, Landon Richards had his third TD and South owned a 27-26 lead. South added a 2-point conversion on an Overcash-to-Moore pass to make it 29-26.

Central had a receiver running behind South’s defense with 1:36 left, but he couldn’t make the catch.

That was close to a disaster, but South was due a break and got one.

With a minute left, South recovered a fumble to wrap up the long-awaited SPC win.

Central will try to bounce back at home against an East Rowan squad still seeking its first victory.

South plays at Concord, a team that lost a defensive struggle at Carson on Friday.

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Cross country runner Blythe Elliott was crowned as homecoming queen at halftime. Basketball and baseball standout Aaron Jones was named the homecoming king.