CHARLOTTE C.H. – The Randolph-Henry Statesmen wrapped up their season on Friday against Nottoway and while the wins have not come at the pace that the coaches and team would have liked, overall they have been playing better over the last several games. R-H put together another strong effort this Friday before losing 42-26 in a game that was closer than the score suggest.
Both teams would be kept off of the scoreboard on their first offensive series, but Nottoway struck quickly the second time they saw the ball on a 70-yard touchdown run to go ahead 7-0.
Randolph-Henry answered right back as Chris Powell returned a kick off 73 yards and in for a Statesmen score. The two-point conversion was stopped and Nottoway led 7-6.
The Cougars got another long touchdown run on the next series and surged ahead 14-6.
The Statesmen defense helped get their team in the endzone on the next series when a Nottoway fumble was picked up by Powell and returned 37 yards for the score to cut the Nottoway lead to 14-12.
The Cougars used a punishing ground attack to move down the field and score again with just over 6 minutes left in the second quarter and they would use an onside kick to get the ball right back and score again to go ahead 28-12.
R-H went to their running attack and moved the ball down the field behind good blocking from lineman such as Collin Vaughan and Christian Reed along with running from Powell and Tyree Blow.
Powell scored from the one-yard line and then added a two-point conversion to make the score 28-20. Nottoway got one more touchdown right before halftime and went to intermission with a 34-20 lead.
The second half would be a much different story as Randolph-Henry got great defense and held Nottoway in check for most of the half. The Statesmen got a kick off return for a touchdown to start the second half that made the score 34-26. Trailing by just one touchdown, the score remained the same for the majority of the second half. Nottoway finally got a late score to close out the win and make the final 42-26.
Randolph-Henry finished the season with a 2-8 record, but showed improvement over the final third of the season and relied on several young players that should be key components next year.
(Photos by Ron Bagley)
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