Moore County wants more bite in the run game

Paxson Embrey’s versatility and new tight-end committee highlight Raiders’ effort to become a more physical

3:59 p.m. Sept. 10, 2026

The Moore County Observer

There was one line coming out of Moore County’s work this week that echoed: “Anyone that wants to hit somebody, we’re going to put them in a tight end position.”

That tells you about as much as you need to know.

A week ago, we talked about Moore County’s linebackers seeing the gaps but not attacking them hard enough. Goodpasture showed what hesitation costs against a good football team. The Raiders could recognize what was coming. Getting there with bad intentions was another matter.

This week, that same conversation has moved over to the offense.

Moore County is looking for some muscle, and the Raiders are moving people around and working more tight-end sets. I would not get too caught up in the X’s and O’s of it. This feels less like a scheme change than trying to find the right people for the job.

They are trying to find out who wants to hit somebody.

Embrey can play about anywhere

Freshman Paxson Embrey is becoming one of the more interesting pieces on this roster because Moore County does not seem particularly interested in giving him one permanent address.

Need him at corner? He can go there. Safety? Same answer. He has worked from the slot and at A-back, and he has taken snaps at quarterback.

The description from inside the program is plug-and-play. “He does not complain about it. He’s like a Swiss Army knife.”

That is quite a bit to put on a freshman, but there is some value in letting a young player see the whole game instead of one little patch of grass.

A kid who has taken snaps at quarterback understands a route differently when he lines up in the slot. Playing in the secondary gives him another look at what an offense is trying to do to him.

And Moore County needs that kind of player. This is not a roster deep enough to have a different specialist waiting for every situation. Some boys are going to have to change hats before the night is over.

Embrey seems just fine with that, and his upside is worth keeping an eye on.

A broken hand and a tight-end committee

Then there is Jose Garcia.

Garcia broke his hand, and it happens to be his right hand – his pitching hand. For a baseball player, nobody would have blamed him for looking at the calendar and deciding he had done enough football for one fall.

Instead, Garcia's answer was pretty simple. “I’m going to play.”

That tells you a little something about him.

It also gives Moore County another option as it experiments with a committee at tight end. Garcia, Ty Smith, and Westin Byrom are among the names being worked there as the Raiders try to breathe some life into the running game.

Calling them tight ends almost misses the point. Moore County is looking for blockers – boys willing to put a shoulder into somebody and keep their feet moving.

The Raiders have not leaned heavily on the position in the past, but this is a different team with a different problem. The run game needs help, and putting another body near the line of scrimmage is one way to give it some.

Whether it works will come down to something football has always demanded: Can you move the fellow across from you?

The run game has to give Scherff some help

Moore County has not found much offensive rhythm through three games, and there is no mystery about part of the reason.

Austin Scherff is a freshman quarterback learning the job on Friday nights, with plenty of young players learning alongside him. Goodpasture made for a hard lesson.

What Moore County cannot do is make Scherff carry the whole thing with his right arm. The Raiders need a running game sturdy enough to keep them out of obvious passing downs and give the youngster a fighting chance.

Nobody is asking for five yards every snap. There are nights when three hard yards will do just fine, especially when they keep the offense on track.

That is where the tight-end work gets interesting. An extra blocker can change an edge or give a back a little more daylight, but mostly it lets Moore County find out who is willing to do work that will never show up in the box score.

A young team learns quickly when the fellow across the line is bigger, faster, and not much interested in waiting on you.

Last week, the lesson was about getting downhill and attacking a gap. This week, the offense is getting its own version of the same message.

Put another body at the line if you need to. Move a kid somewhere new if he can help. Just find somebody willing to put his hands on a defender and mean it.

That is about where Moore County is right now. The Raiders are not searching for some grand answer. They are trying to find enough physical football players to make the offense go, and sometimes football gets that simple.