LYNCHBURG, Tenn. — The Moore County Raiders look to earn their final W of the regular season on Thursday night in Lynchburg with a district game against those other Raiders from Giles County. Moore County clinched the Region 5A crown on October 13 with a 49-7 win over Huntland.
Richland recently moved from 2A to 1A football this season and this will be the first meeting of the two teams since the 2019 season. Richland won that game by a touchdown in Lynnville.
Richland will come into the game fresh off a 33-0 shellacking at Eagleville on October 20. They currently sit a 2-3 and fifth place in Region 5A play, but that doesn’t mean they have nothing to play for on Thursday. We’re sure they would like nothing more than to ruin Moore County’s perfect season as a final season statement.
Will Raider QB Dawson White get the Mr. Football nod?
Many eyes will be on Mr. Football hopeful Dawson White on Thursday. Area coaches and media base Mr. Football nominations on regular season stats, and White will be looking to finish the season strong. He currently sits #4 in the state for total yards with 2520 and 32 touchdowns. White is also the #18 rusher in the state with 1233 rushing yard and sits as the #49 passer in the state with 1287 total yards.
Fellow Raider Logan Hegwood also made the top 50 rushers in the state with 843 total yards and 14 touchdowns. {To see the complete leaderboard according to Max Preps, click here.} Together, Moore County’s Thunder and Lightning have scored 46 of Moore County’s 52 total touchdowns.
Despite their convincing win at Forrest on Friday, the Associated Press continues to rank Moore County as the #3 Class 1A team in the state. {To view the complete poll, click here.} They sit behind Region 3’s South Pittsburg (9-0, 4-0) and Region 7’s Dresden (9-0, 4-0). South Pittsburg will play #10 Whitwell (7-2, 4-0) on Thursday and Dresden will play Greenfield (3-6, 2-4). Collinwood is the only other Region 5A team remaining in the Top Ten ranking. Moore County beat them 35-6 on October 6.
Moore County has everything to play for on Thursday. Besides preserving their perfect regular season record and padding White’s stats, another district win will allow them to earn home field advantage in the first couple of rounds in the TSSAA State Playoffs.
Besides White and Hegwood, we also expect several Raider seniors to earn All Region 5A honors. Keller Morey currently leads the receiving corps with 353 yards followed by Alex Copeland with 246, and Will Parker with 234.
On defense, Peyton Martin sits in top spot with 82 tackles. He’s followed by Eli Brown (60), Landon Smith (56), Wes Clifton (54), and Dawson White (54).
Senior Night will happen on Thursday ahead of the 7 p.m. kick off. Game time temps should be around 60 degrees with clear skies. If you can’t attend the game in person, the Moore County Sports Network’s student broadcasting team will broadcast live on the NFHS Network. The Times will also live blog the game on our Facebook page. •
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