BY CAIN MADDEN/MANAGING EDITOR
cain.madden@tidewaternews.com

COURTLAND
Hobgood Academy came out aggressive in the NCISAA Colonial Carolina 8-Man playoff battle of the Raiders. Perhaps too aggressive in the 52-24 loss, as their top rusher Greg Mullins was ejected at the 4:15 mark of the first quarter after pushing a Southampton Player out of bounds away from the play.

SA started off with the ball at Hobgood’s 48, and on the second play of the drive, Matt Rose took it 23 yards for a first down. Two plays later, Roy Hill carried it to the 6-yard line.

Hobgood came to fight, though, and they stopped Nate Williams after 2 yards, following that up by stopping Matt Rose after he gained 1. On the next play, Hill brought it to the 1 yard line and it was fourth and goal for the Raiders. With only 1 yard to go, however, Rose wouldn’t be denied as SA powered it up the gut. Rose also picked up the conversion and the Raiders went up 8-0 with 8:05 to go in the first.

On Hobgood’s first offensive play, Dequan Hines coughed it up after a 5 yard gain, and the SA Raiders recovered. When Southampton Academy took over, Rose hit Harrison Pope deep for a 42-yard touchdown pass at the 7:43 mark. Hill ran in the conversion, and like that, it was 16-0.

Southampton came out playing strong on defense, stuffing Mullins and Hines after modest gains, and then Hobgood was blown offsides by the refs and faced third and long. It wasn’t enough — Mullins hit the corner and gained 16 yards to the 30. A Southampton penalty made the gain even greater and brought HA to the 15-yard line. After Hines gained to the 10-yard line, Mullins looked like he was going to go all the way but was stripped at the 1-yard line and the SA Raiders recovered.

At this point, Mullins got his first unsportsmanlike conduct call against him for the game, which brought SA to the 16. On the second play of the drive, Rose took it 85 yards for the score.

Before the 2-point conversion attempt, Mullins was thrown out of the game for his second unsportsmanlike conduct call of the drive when he pushed Alex Hasty out of bounds away from the play. After that, Hines was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct for talking trash in the endzone. Williams rushed in for 2, and the score was 24-0 SA Raiders at the 4:15 mark.

Hobgood took it down the field on a 7-play drive, with Christopher Braddy finding paydirt from 27-yards out. Hines ran in the conversion, and the score was 24-8 SA with 1:09 left in the first.

Southampton wasn’t done. On the first play from scrimmage, Rose found Williams, who had beat his man in coverage down the right sideline, for a score at the 49.4 second mark. Rose was good for 2 and the score was 32-8.

A pass interference call on SA was the only thing that effectively moved the ball for the HA Raiders on the next drive. In the next 4 plays, Hobgood managed to only get 7 yards and turned the ball over on downs.

On the next series, Hill started with it at the SA 41-yard line, took it to Hobgood’s 36 on the first rush, then to the 1-yard line on his second rush. From there, he simply punched it in for a touchdown. Andrew Lowe failed to get the conversion on a keeper, and SA led 38-8 with 8:56 to go in the second.

Hobgood took over on their 34-yard line, and on their fourth play of that drive, Braddy got it to near the 44. When the referees measured it, he was short by inches and SA took over on downs.

SA took advantage of the short field. Williams brought it to the 33-yard line, and a pass interference call against Hobgood on the next play got SA to the 16-yard line. From there, Hill found some space for his second score. He also got the conversion and the score was 46-8 with 6:26 left.

Hobgood finally found some space to work with on the fourth play of the next drive, with Hines finding the corner on an end-around and taking it to the 11-yard line.

On the next play, Hines brought it to the 6-yard line. On second down, however, Pope stopped Hines after a 1-yard gain. Then Hill hit Braddy in the backfield to take that yard right back. After a time out, the SA Raiders swarmed and hit Wade Johnson for another loss of 1 and a turnover on downs.

After a pair of first-down gains by Hill and another first down following Hobgood’s fourth unsportsmanlike conduct call of the half, this one on Carson Smith, the SA Raiders didn’t find much success. However, they had brought the clock down to the 26 second mark when they punted it away.

HA would drive to Southampton’s 25-yard line, but there, Hill sacked Braddy for a 10-yard loss, and the half ended with the score 46-8.

In the third, the Raiders would score one more time to start the clock rolling. From the 19 yard line, Andrew Lowe hit Pope in the endzone for a touchdown with 3:29 to go.

Stuffing the box, SA almost forced a fourth four and out against Hobgood in the fourth quarter, but before Hines could be ruled down on a sack, he completed a pass to D.J. Flanary, who made it to the 2-yard line. Hines rushed it in from there, and Braddy ran in the conversion. The score was 52-16.

An error enabled HA to score again when Chris Fly picked up the kickoff after it’d only traveled 2 yards and fumbled it at the 29-yard line with HA recovering.

They’d march down the field and Braddy found Hines in the endzone for a touchdown. On the conversion, Hines found Braddy in the endzone.

The next kickoff was fallen on, and Lowe took a knee to end the game.

“Overall I was pleased,” Head Coach Dale Marks said after the game. “I was not pleased with how we played at the end. That left a bad taste in my mouth. But, a win is a win.”

Hill rushed for 124 yards on 13 carries, and Matt Rose had 108 yards on 4 carries. He was also 2 of 3 passing for 101 yards and two touchdowns. Pope caught 2 passes for 61 yards and two touchdowns.

SA advances to travel to Kinston, N.C., to face Arendell Parrott Academy in the semi-final.

“I hope there were no serious injuries as we move into the next game,” Marks said. “It’s win or go home.”