WILL HART / CONTRIBUTING WRITER
willhart43088@gmail.com

HOBGOOD, N.C.
The Southampton Academy Raiders had an away game Friday night, traveling to Hobgood Academy where they took on another set of Raiders. SA was able to pull away in the second half and put another win on the board as the final score at the end of the fourth quarter read Southampton Academy: 78, Hobgood Academy: 42. SA improved to 4-1, while HA dropped to 2-3.

The game started out with Southampton striking first with 7:43 left in the first quarter on a 12 yard touchdown pass from Matt Rose to Nate Williams. Rose also ran in the two-point conversion to make it 8-0. Hobgood then struck back on the next drive and was able to get on the scoreboard following a 48 yard touchdown run by Greg Mullins with 7:27 left in the first quarter. Mullins also ran in the two-point conversion to tie the game up at 8. Southampton then struck again with 5:24 left in the first quarter on another touchdown pass, this one a 48-yarder from Rose to Harrison Pope. Rose also ran in this 2-point conversion and that made it 16-8.

Hobgood quickly answered with another touchdown of their own with 4:30 left in the first quarter on a 6 yard touchdown run by Mullins. Mullins again ran in the two-point conversion to tie the game up at 16. Southampton then controlled the remainder of the first after Williams ran the next kickoff back 68 yards for a touchdown and Rose ran in the 2-point conversion, giving SA a 24-16 lead with 4:20 left in the first. Southampton was able to stop Hobgood on their next drive, and then they proceeded to score on a 50 yard touchdown run by Ethan Edwards with 1:14 left in the quarter. Rose ran in the 2-point conversion to make it 32-16.

Southampton then added to their scoring in the second quarter on an 11 yard touchdown run by Williams with 7:49 left in the second. The two-point conversion was ran in by Rose, and it put Southampton up by a score of 40-16.

After that Hobgood was able to cut into the Southampton lead after touchdown runs of 50 and 56 yards by Mullins and a 2 point conversion pass attempt from Larry Jones to Keshawn Smith was successful to bring the score to 40-30, which held until halftime.

Hobgood cut into the Southampton lead more, making it 40-36 after a 10 yard touchdown run by Mullins with 10:03 left in the third. That was the closest Hobgood would be able to get as Southampton scored two more times in the quarter on touchdown runs of 68 and 25 yards by Edwards and two successful two-point conversion attempts brought the score to 56-36 in favor of Southampton at the end of the third quarter.

Edwards then started off the scoring for Southampton on a 46 yard touchdown run with 11:41 left in the game. The two-point conversion failed, but Southampton now led Hobgood 62-36 early in the fourth. Rose, however, quickly scored on an 18 yard touchdown run about 2 minutes later. The 2-point conversion attempt was good and made it 70-36. Hobgood added to the score on a 65 yard touchdown run by Mullins with 5:04 left in the game, which brought the score to 70-42.

The SA Raiders, however, put the nail on the coffin following a 50 yard touchdown run by second stringer Tyler Dodson with 2:03 left in the game. The 2-point conversion was put in by Andrew Lowe and the final was 78-42.

For Southampton, team leaders were Edwards who finished with 20 carries, 272 yards and 4 touchdowns. Rose finished with 14 carries for 109 yards and 1 touchdown. Rose also finished 3-8 passing with 82 yards, 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. Dodson finished with 4 carries for 64 yards and 1 touchdown. Pope finished with 1 catch for 48 yards and 1 touchdown. Pope also picked off 1 pass. Williams finished with 1 catch for 22 yards and 1 touchdown. Williams also had a kickoff return for a touchdown.

For Hobgood, team leaders were Mullins who finished with 23 carries, 246 yards and 6 touchdowns. Larry Jones finished 3-8 passing with 70 yards, 0 touchdowns and 1 interception.

As far as team stats goes, Southampton outgained Hobgood with 540 yards of offense to 337 yards of offense. Southampton had 0 turnovers while Hobgood turned the ball over 3 times with 1 interception and 2 fumbles.

After the game Southampton Academy coach Dale Marks said, “A lot of kids made big plays for us tonight. Overall it was a good team win for us tonight. I thought our kids played a tremendous game. We were up by ten at the half then they cut it to four early in the second half. It was really big putting the next three scores on the board behind Ethan’s runs to open up the game for us. We are looking forward to next week and going to Raleigh to play a tough St. David’s team.”