By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

LANDIS — South Rowan head coach Chris Walsh knew Landon Richards was getting a bunch of carries.

“I knew he was getting up there, knew he had at least 30 carries and had to be getting tired,” Walsh said. “So  I’m hollering at him from the sideline, ‘Landon, are you OK!’ He turns around, gives me a thumb’s up and a half-smirk, and I know that means he’s got one more in him.”

And one more. And one more. And one more.

When Walsh did stats off the film of Friday’s unbelievable 29-26 win against Central Cabarrus, the numbers were extraordinary. Richards had carried the ball 45 times — which may be a county record — for 265 yards and three touchdowns.

“We used four different formations, but basically we just ran two different plays.” Richards said. “Just ran them and ran them.”

Every bruise was worth it. It was South’s biggest win in a while. Arguably, it’s the biggest since South beat Carson in 2016. It had been seven years since South had won a 3A conference game.

“Yeah, I was pretty sore on Saturday,” Richards said. “I had no idea I had that many carries. I wasn’t thinking about carries. I wasn’t thinking about yards. In a game like that the only thing I’m thinking about is finding some way to help us win it.”

Leading the blocking for Landon, the tailback, was Conner Richards, the fullback. They are brothers separated by 13 months, but they are linked by a common passion for football.

They are tenacious players. They are not gifted with large bodies. Landon is listed larger than he actually is. He’s 5-foot-7 and weighs 170 pounds.

But the brothers are hard-nosed and make the most of everything they have.

“They are great young guys and I love being their coach,” Walsh said. “They give each other grief, and then they go play their hearts out. There are times when they carry us.”

Besides his blocking duties, Conner is the centerpiece of South’s defense as a hard-hitting middle linebacker. He is the team’s leading tackler. He is also the backup running back.

“We’re close enough in age that sometimes I’ve played up in sports like baseball, just so we could be on the same team together,” Conner said. “Playing together, helping each other, that’s a lot of fun.”

Still, it was a tense and trying summer for both boys.

On July 22, at a fish fry at their grandmother’s house, their father, Brandon, was leaning over to talk to someone and was playfully pushed into the pool. It was a shallow pool, and he’s a big man. He jammed his neck and broke a vertebrae. He was hospitalized from the day of the accident until Aug. 26, for more than a month and well into the football season. He was paralyzed temporarily, but he is recovering now. He is making a comeback even bigger than the one his sons made against Central.

He was able to attend South’s game at West Rowan on Sept. 22. It was a loss, but he got to see Landon score three touchdowns.

A few weeks after his father was injured, Landon hurt a knee in South’s scrimmage with North Rowan in the Rowan County Jamboree. The diagnosis was a sprained MCL and meniscus. He missed the opener against Union Academy, a game South won and a game he might have had 250 yards in.

He also sat out the Northwest Cabarrus game the week before South played Central.

“Northwest has a generational team for that school, they’re awesome, and I couldn’t have made much difference for us,” Landon said. “But resting that week gave my knee a chance to heal some and I felt really good for Central. Watching the film of Central, I knew we could beat them if we went out and played our best.”

In the four games he’s played, Landon has 92 carries for 523 yards and he has two touchdown catches.

South got off to an awful start against Central Cabarrus. A homecoming crowd was dismayed. The Vikings built a 20-0 lead.

“We got down early because of mental mistakes,” Landon said. “But we got back to 20-7 before halftime (Brooks Overcash threw a TD pass to tight end Alex Furr) and I felt very confident at halftime. Central hadn’t done anything to stop us, but we’d stopped ourselves.”

It was an emotional halftime. Blythe Elliott, a cross country runner who lost her mother, South art teacher Jackie Elliott, in August, was crowned homecoming queen.

And then it was an emotional second half. The Richards brothers weren’t going to be stopped.

The Raiders are usually a spread team because they have good receivers and a good quarterback. But Walsh had tinkered with throwback I-formation football in the A.L. Brown and West Rowan games and the Raiders had used the I some when the Richards brothers were jayvees.

Against Central that became South’s offense, with Landon carrying virtually every play, and with Conner as the lead blocker, wiping out a linebacker, as his brother gained 5s, 6s and 7s. South’s offensive line did the job, and South was going to run it until Central stopped it. The Vikings never stopped it.

Landon broke tackles for the two touchdowns that got South back to 20-20. Jadon Moore’s third PAT gave South a 21-20 lead.

Central responded to go back ahead 26-21.

Now it was the fourth quarter, the clock was ticking, and South launched what everyone knew would be a decisive drive, grinding away. One way or the other, this would be it.

Crunch time came with South perched the Central 7-yard line — staring at fourth-and-2. Walsh called timeout to talk it over, but everyone in Donnell Stadium knew Landon was getting the ball. Central knew that also.

Conner wasn’t surprised to see Central come out in what amounted to a six-man front.

“I’m a linebacker so I knew how I would play it, and they did exactly what I would have done,” he said. “They walked down two linebackers into both A gaps (between the center and the guards).”

There were too many Vikings to block and a defensive tackle came free and was ready to blow the play up. Somehow Conner blocked the big guy. Landon got 3 yards.

Now it was first-and-goal at the 4. Two plays later, Landon put it in the end zone for a 27-26 South lead. Overcash threw a 2-point pass to Moore to make it 29-26. Central still had a little time, and now a field goal would only tie it.

Central nearly hit a pass play that would have wrecked the Raiders’ celebration.

“We had a busted coverage and the receiver got behind us, but he was going so fast he missed the ball.” Conner said. “If he’d slowed down a little, I think he catches it.”

Then on Central’s last snap with a little over a minute to go, Conner and James Ritchie got to the quarterback and forced a fumble. Conner recovered it.

“It was fourth down, they had to throw, and James and I just went after the quarterback,” Conner said.  “And we got him.”

For South it was win that all those who took part in it will never forget. The Raiders won on homecoming. They won in the SPC. They ended all sorts of negative streaks.

“It all boiled down to how much our guys wanted to win, and it’s the kind of win our boys have been fighting for since I got here,” Walsh said. “They’re doing everything they can to get over the hump.”