By Tabitha Evans Moore
Editor & Publisher
LYNCHBURG, Tenn. — Wind gusted across Doug Price Field on Friday night, with rain threatening from the southwest, as the Moore County Raiders hosted the Battle Creek Grizzlies in non-district football action. The Raiders, held scoreless in each of their previous two games, fell behind 27-0 through three quarters — but a defense that kept forcing extra possessions gave the offense enough chances to make it a football game before the clock ran out. Battle Creek held on, 27-14.
GRIZZLIES QUICK STRIKE OFFENSE GOES UP 14-0 IN THE FIRST
Moore County won the opening possession and marched down the field. Quarterback Austin Scherff found Ike Holt on a long completion, then handed off to Drew Hardison, who powered the Raiders into the red zone. Battle Creek’s defense tightened near the goal line, though, stuffing two straight Hardison runs to force a third down.
On third-and-goal, an incomplete pass appeared to end the drive, but a holding penalty on Battle Creek gave Moore County new life. Austin Scherff took the next snap on third-and-goal from the 16 and kept it himself, sprinting to the 5-yard line. On fourth down, he tried to power up the middle but was stopped just short of the end zone, turning the ball over on downs with 5:28 left in the first quarter.
Battle Creek took over at its own 1-yard line and wasted little time answering. A 7-yard run set up a long gain that nearly went the distance — Cason Casteel got a hand on the ball carrier but couldn’t bring him down — before the Grizzlies finished the job for a touchdown. The extra point was good, putting Battle Creek up 7-0 with 4:36 remaining in the opening quarter.
The Raiders’ ensuing possession stalled quickly. Tucker Smith fielded the kickoff and returned it to the 32, but after handoffs to Drew Hardison and a completion to Westin Byrom, Moore County faced fourth-and-8 and was forced to punt.
Battle Creek returned the punt to its own 43 with 2:30 left in the quarter and needed just three plays to strike again — a loss on first down was erased by a completion on second, and a deep third-down strike found the end zone. The point after was good, extending the Grizzlies’ lead to 14-0.
With 1:30 left in the quarter, Cason Casteel — dragging defenders with him — returned the ensuing kickoff to the 42. An incomplete pass on first down was followed by a second-down completion wiped out by a holding flag, and a long second-down pass to Memphis Foster closed out the period with Battle Creek still ahead, 14-0.
RAIDERS MAKE A GOAL LINE STAND LATE IN THE SECOND
Moore County opened the second quarter with a long completion to Aidan Moore, followed by first-down gains on a Tucker Smith handoff and a QB Austin Scherff keeper. But an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Moore County backed the Raiders up, and after a long incomplete pass and a long Smith run, Jax Ross was forced to punt the ball away to the Battle Creek 7.
The Grizzlies’ offense had to work for every yard on that possession, and it was here the Raider defense first signaled it wasn’t going to make anything easy. A first-down run went nowhere, and a second-down keeper picked up yardage only to the 12. On third-and-5, Tucker Smith made a touchdown-saving tackle up the middle. Battle Creek kept grinding — a series of handoffs up the middle, one broken up by a big hit from Aidan Moore, a deflected pass nearly intercepted by Moore County, and a keeper that reached the Raiders’ 27. A first-down handoff pushed the Grizzlies close to the sticks, but a second-and-inches deep pass was caught out of bounds and a third-and-inches throw fell incomplete. Facing fourth down, Battle Creek elected to go for it up the middle — and the Raiders’ defense stuffed the run cold, capped by a goal-line stand from Deacon Liles that forced a Battle Creek timeout.
Moore County’s offense couldn’t cash in on the stand. A first-down handoff, a second-down pass and a third-down incompletion forced a Raiders timeout of their own with 3:40 left in the half. Jax Ross’s fourth-down punt appeared to pin Battle Creek deep, but a holding call on the return brought the ball back.
Battle Creek made the most of the second chance. A completed pass gained 6 yards, and with 15 seconds left, a second-and-4 completion found the end zone for a touchdown. The extra-point attempt sailed wide right, keeping the score at 20-0.
With 2:17 left in the half, Tucker Smith returned the kickoff to the 25 before Battle Creek called timeout. Austin Scherff then found a wide-open Cason Casteel for a long completion out to the 35, but the Raiders couldn’t sustain the drive — an incomplete pass, a second-down throw over the middle that also fell incomplete, and a short gain on a Smith handoff left Moore County facing fourth-and-long. Jax Ross’s punt, launched with 1:16 remaining, was followed by a flurry of flags on a chippy return — offsetting unsportsmanlike conduct penalties wiped out what would have been a Raider punt-return touchdown and instead placed Battle Creek at its own 10-yard line.
Battle Creek ran out the half from there. A first-down completion was negated by a holding call, and the Grizzlies simply repeated first down as the clock wound down. Moore County went to the locker room trailing 20-0.
SCHERFF KEEPS FOR RAIDERS FIRST TOUCHDOWN
The half’s momentum carried over at the start of the third. Jax Ross’s kickoff was returned to the end zone for a Battle Creek touchdown — a holding penalty was called against Moore County on the play, but it didn’t erase the score, and the extra point made it 27-0.
That’s when the Raiders started to turn the game into a fight. Cason Casteel returned the ensuing kickoff to the 42, and QB Austin Scherff went to work — a short completion to Casteel, an incompletion, then a third-and-9 conversion when Scherff broke through two would-be sacks and found Aidan Moore deep for a gain to the 45. A handoff to Drew Hardison and a checkdown to Memphis Foster set up third-and-9, and Scherff found a wide-open Hardison, who rumbled down to the 5-yard line. Two plays later, Scherff punched it in himself on a keeper up the middle for Moore County’s first touchdown of the night. The kick was good. Battle Creek 27, Moore County 7.
The defense answered right back. Battle Creek’s next possession ran into a wall of Raiders — a gang tackle by Tucker Smith, Ike Holt and Westin Byrom, a pass-interference call against Moore County that briefly extended the drive, then back-to-back incompletions defended by Aidan Moore and Memphis Foster. On fourth-and-7, the Grizzlies’ pass was batted down, and Moore County took over on downs.
The Raiders’ offense couldn’t immediately capitalize — an incompletion, then a Drew Hardison carry that was stripped loose and fought for in the pile before Moore County came up with it. Facing third-and-3 after a sideline warning penalty on Battle Creek, QB Austin Scherff kept for no gain, setting up a fourth-and-3 decision. Rather than punt, the Raiders lined up to go for it — a gutsy call that paid off when Battle Creek jumped offside, handing Moore County a fresh set of downs. The drive pushed to midfield and beyond on a low-snap completion to Aidan Moore, but stalled after a sack on fourth down turned the ball back over to Battle Creek.
The Grizzlies moved the ball into Raider territory before the quarter ended, aided by a pass-interference penalty and a Battle Creek false start that offset some of the progress. Memphis Foster capped the period with a sack, sending the teams into the fourth quarter with Battle Creek still ahead, 27-7.
FAILED ONSIDES KICK STALLS THE COMEBACK
Memphis Foster picked up where he left off, dropping the Battle Creek quarterback again to open the period; a block-in-the-back penalty on the Grizzlies was declined. Battle Creek’s next pass sailed deep and out of bounds, handing the ball back to Moore County.
The Raiders moved the chains once on a completion to Tucker Smith but couldn’t sustain the drive, taking back-to-back sacks before punting it away.
Battle Creek’s ensuing drive was blunted again — a holding penalty on the return backed the Grizzlies up, and after pushing into Raider territory, the drive stalled at fourth-and-1 near midfield when Memphis Foster broke up a third-down pass. Moore County’s defense had, for the fourth time that night, kept the deficit from growing.
Austin Scherff and the offense went back to work, connecting with Ike Holt and getting a boost from a Battle Creek sideline penalty, but three plays later the Raiders were forced to punt again with 5:46 on the clock.
That’s when the defense delivered its biggest sequence of the night. Battle Creek’s first two plays after the punt return went nowhere — a tackle for loss by Mason Hankins and a run stuffed at the line — before Memphis Foster stepped in front of a third-down pass for an interception, drawing a horse-collar penalty on the return that tacked on extra yardage.
Handed a short field with 3:30 to play, Austin Scherff kept up the middle to the 25, then found Memphis Foster on a pass to the 10. A throw to the end zone sailed high on first down, but Scherff came back to Westin Byrom for a completion down to the 3. On third-and-inches with the clock inside two minutes, Scherff kept the ball in for a touchdown. The extra point made it 27-14.
Moore County’s onside kick attempt with 1:50 left landed in Battle Creek’s hands, and the Grizzlies ran out the final minutes with a mix of runs and a short completion before taking a knee to close out the 27-14 win.
{Editor’s Note: We’ll add individual game stats as soon as they are available.}
The loss dropped the Raiders to a 1-3 overall record so far in the 2026 season. They beat Community 27-7 in game one before getting blanked by Cascade and Goodpasture Christian the following weeks. They’ll travel to Franklin County next Friday to take on Huntland. •
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