LINCOLN COUNTY — This Friday night, the Moore County Raiders will get a long anticipated opportunity: a rematch with the Fayetteville Tigers. The fellow Region 5A team exists as Moore County’s only loss of the 2020 season. That 28-22 defeat in Lincoln County on September 18 left a bad taste in the Moore County squad’s mouth.
It was an ugly affair.
The Raiders – in an uncharacteristic mistake-riddled first half – suffered nearly 15 first half penalties and lethargic play. Despite the fact that they tied the game late in the fourth quarter with a clutch Kyler Parker to Dylan Scruggs 55 yard touchdown pass, the Tigers faked a punt and scored the go ahead TD with 50 seconds remaining in the game. (To read our complete coverage of that game, click here.) An opportunity to right that wrong’s been circling in the Raiders players heads ever since.
“After that game, the coaching staff focused the team on just getting better each game, but the kids definitely want another shot at them,” Raider Head Coach Kris White said.
The 12-1 Raiders, haven’t loss a game since Fayetteville City, and now boast a Mr. Football finalist, another Mr. Football semi-finalist, an offense that’s as dangerous through the air as on the ground, and a defense that swarms the ball.
Led by Raider quarterback Kyler Parker and senior running back Tyler Smith, the Moore County offense has pieced together 2,345 rushing yards so far this season. The option QB and elusive running back have proven hard to stop.
In receiving, there are playmakers all over the field. Moore County’s balanced their running attack with 1,972 receiving yards led by freshman Dawson White (535), senior Kaden White (509), senior Brayden Cashion (327), and senior Dylan Scruggs (263), who missed several games late in the season due to a knee injury.
On defense, fellow Mr. Football semi-finalist Kaden White leads in tackles with 136 and he’s followed closely by teammates Donavin Pearson (133), Dawson White (121), and Tyler Smith (108).
By comparison, the 10-2 Tigers prefer to run the football. They’ve earned 2,105 yards on the ground and another 912 through the air. The Raider D will need to key in on freshman running back #3 KJ Jackson, who’s amassed 1,257 of the Tiger’s rushing yards this year. Junior Corian Cash (#11) is the Tiger leading receiver with 393 yards.
On the Moore County Sports Network’s Coach’s Corner on Saturday senior Brayden Cashion said it’s just an opportunity to mark another one off the list. Cornersville, Eaglevile, Chapel Hill, Huntingdon … for this year’s Raider seniors the 2020 season has been opportunity to beat those teams that presented obstacles to their collective success in previous seasons.
Despite that mission, senior center and nose guard Zac Carawan said that the Raiders remained level headed going into the game and planned to play with not only a lot of emotion but also a lot of discipline.
“Basically, it’s an opportunity to get revenge, but we also treat it just like any other game,” he said.
Fayetteville’s football stadium is a quick 30 minute trip down Highway 50 and Raiders Nation will likely show up in large numbers. Tickets will not be sold at the gate and are only available through the TSSAA website or the Go Fan app. MCHS Athletic Director Josh Deal told The Times that the Raiders were allocated 800 tickets and we’ve currently sold 501 of those tickets. If you can’t attend the game, it will be broadcast live on Raider Country 105.1 and 95.5 FM with Joe Abraham and the Moore County Sports Network, on the NFHS Network, or The Lynchburg Times will post live score updates on our Facebook page. •
{The Lynchburg Times is the only independently owned and operated newspaper in Lynchburg, Tennessee. We cover Metro Moore County government, Jack Daniel’s Distillery, Nearest Green Distillery, Tims Ford State Park, Motlow State Community College, Moore County High School, Moore County Middle School, Lynchburg Elementary, Raider Sports, plus regional and state news.}