Raiders head to Richland for season finale

DUANE CROSS
MCO Publisher•Editor

Eight straight losses have a way of wearing on a football team. But Moore County coach Kris White says there's one thing he hasn't seen from his Raiders this season: anybody hanging his head and giving up.

And with one game remaining, White would like nothing more than to see that persistence rewarded.

Moore County (1-8, 0-4 Region 5-1A) travels to Lynnville to face Richland (2-7, 0-4) at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, in the regular-season finale for both teams. Neither has managed a region victory, and the postseason is already out of reach.

But there's still something worth playing for, particularly for 11 seniors whose high school football careers are coming to an end.

"The one thing adversity will teach you is, you know, you've got to push through it," White said. "That's the only way to get through it."

And these Raiders, he said, have done exactly that. "This group has refused to sit there and lay in it."

A play here, a play there

Friday night's 28-6 loss to Cornersville was another example of a season in which Moore County has been competitive for stretches but hasn't been able to turn those stretches into victories.

The Bulldogs came to Doug Price Field averaging 45 points a game. Moore County held them to 28, forced several punts, and consistently held its ground along the defensive front. But penalties, a costly fumble, and a handful of big plays kept the Raiders from making a serious run at the Bulldogs.

White liked much of what he saw, particularly the physicality his team brought to the line of scrimmage. "We have not gotten pushed around up front, especially on the defensive side of the ball," White said.

Senior Tucker Smith rushed for 80 yards on 17 carries, while Kason Ferrara caught three passes for 54 yards and intercepted a fourth-quarter pass that set up Moore County's lone touchdown. Junior Drew Hardison led the defense with 12 tackles, and Smith added eight.

White pointed to the youth in his secondary, where injuries have forced players into unfamiliar positions. Sophomore Hunter Alford, normally a safety, started at cornerback against Cornersville. Freshman Paxson Embry also found himself handling responsibilities at safety.

There were mistakes, and Cornersville had the talent to make those mistakes hurt. But White understands that younger players learn some lessons only by getting thrown into the fire on Friday nights. Next season, they'll have those experiences to draw upon.

White doesn't believe the Raiders have been physically overmatched as much as they've been unable to put together a complete game. They've moved the football and made defensive stands, but too often something has gone wrong before they could finish the job.

"You have to make those breaks," White said. "You can't rely on somebody else."

Richland offers one last opportunity

Richland knows something about frustrating losses. The Lynnville Raiders opened their season with a 21-19 victory over Wayne County and beat Community 44-7 in September. But they've dropped four in a row since then, including a 38-22 loss to Fayetteville last Friday.

Three of Richland's four region losses have been decided by single digits. Huntland escaped with a 17-15 victory, Eagleville held on for a 13-7 win, and Cornersville managed a 23-14 decision.

Those scores suggest Richland is better than its record might indicate. Moore County has already seen what can happen when a few missed assignments or stalled possessions decide a close game.

White expects Richland to present some challenges because of its willingness to change offensive looks. "The last two games, they've been spread kind of like us," White said. "The games before that, they were everybody in the box."

That leaves Moore County preparing for two different approaches. Richland could spread the defense and test the Raiders in space, or crowd the line of scrimmage and make the game a physical contest up front.

For Moore County, success starts with establishing its running game and avoiding the drive-killing mistakes that have plagued the Raiders throughout the season.

Smith has rushed for 533 yards and three touchdowns, averaging 5.1 yards per carry. He's been Moore County's most dependable offensive weapon, and getting him going early Thursday could help the Raiders control the pace and keep Richland's offense on the sideline.

Freshman quarterback Austin Scherff has thrown for 978 yards, while Hardison has contributed 202 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Ferrara has 10 receptions for 162 yards and a touchdown. Senior Ike Holt, whose season ended with an injury before the Cornersville game, still leads the Raiders with 180 receiving yards on 13 catches.

The Raiders have shown they can move the football. Against Cornersville, they rushed for 118 yards and threw for another 97, but managed only six points. Turning that production into touchdowns, rather than watching promising drives die, will be essential Thursday.

White believes the matchup is winnable. And after a season filled with close calls and hard lessons, he thinks a victory would mean a great deal to a team that has continued working without much to show for it on the scoreboard.

"As long as we keep looking forward and show up every day and work hard, good things will happen," he said.

A senior class that never quit

For Tyler Bateman, Westin Byrom, Jerry Carter, Chris Dingler, Kason Ferrara, Ike Holt, Deacon Liles, Alex Lynch, Aidan Moore, Jaxson Ross, and Tucker Smith, Thursday marks the end of their high school football careers, even though Holt's injury has already brought his playing days to a close.

It hasn't been the senior season they envisioned when spring practice began. Not even close. But White believes this group has left something behind that won't show up in a box score.

He describes them as blue-collar players who have worked for everything they've earned. Some weren't heavily relied upon in middle school or during their early varsity years. Their responsibilities grew as they got older, and they accepted them without complaint.

The losses kept piling up, but the seniors kept showing up. Before the Cornersville game, White told his players how much he appreciated the way that group had handled a difficult season. They hadn't turned on one another or blamed the coaching staff. They just kept doing their jobs.

"They haven't let wins and losses affect how they practice or how they treat each other," White said.

White believes those seniors have shown the underclassmen how to handle adversity. You come to practice, put in the work, and treat your teammates right, even when the scoreboard isn't cooperating. That's a lesson he believes will serve them long after football is over.

White has been part of five state championships during his coaching career. He knows what winning feels like and what it takes to get there. But when asked whether developing good men matters more than another trophy, he didn't hesitate. For White, helping raise good men means more than winning championships.

Football has a way of making everything feel enormous in the moment. A missed tackle can haunt a player all weekend, and when you're 17 or 18 years old, an eight-game losing streak can feel like it'll never end. But White is looking a little farther down the road.

Asked what he hopes these players will remember when they get together 20 years from now, White didn't talk about the record. He talked about being able to look one another in the eye, shake hands, and laugh about the good times. He hopes those friendships will last long after the sting of this season has faded.

There's still a football game to play Thursday, and these Raiders have 48 minutes left to put something in the win column. Nobody in that locker room needs reminding what that would mean.

White knows those 48 minutes won't define the friendships these young men have built. "At the end of the day," he said, "they're brothers."