By DUANE SHERRILL | Special to The News

CARTHAGE — The Raiders were able to claw back into the game late in the fourth quarter but a special teams breakdown slammed the door on the Moore County squad as they fell in non-region action to the Smith County Owls in Carthage 27-13.

The Raiders drew first blood as they were able to march down the field on their first possession and convert on the long drive with a Isaac Petty one-yard plunge to make the score 6-0 with 7:13 to go in the first. The Raiders and Owls were able to stop each other’s resulting drives; however, Smith County was able to get on the board next with a 27-yard touchdown strike to make the county 7-6. The Owls were punch it in again in the second quarter, capping an 80-yard drive with a one-yard keeper to make it 14-6. They were able to sneak in one more score before half when they hit a field goal with a minute left on the clock.

Another field goal gave the Owls a 20-6 lead going into the fourth; however, the Raiders were able to score with about three minutes remaining in the game. The conversion made it 20-13 as Moore County looked for a whirlwind comeback. Their hopes were dashed on the resulting kickoff when the Owls returned it deep into Raider territory and then had 15 yards added on to the end of the run for a penalty against Moore County. The Owls punched it in with just over a minute to go, sealing the 27-13 win.

Isaac Petty led the Raiders with 95 yards on 14 carries while Chris Merical got involved rushing for 27 yards on eight carries.

“It is important to get him involved, so they can’t just drop back and rush four,” Coach Kris White said of Merical’s involvement in the offense. “We got to have a semblance of a run game and it starts with him and not the quarterback, so you got to be able to scheme against two people being able to run rather than just one.”

The Raiders are now 1-6 on the season and are looking to break their six-game skid as they host Fayetteville for homecoming.

“Continue to play how they have played, as far as their effort goes,” Coach White said. “That is what I know that we will see and hope to continue to see. They are still fighting and doing all they can do to win, you know we just are not getting breaks to go our way, eventually they will as long as we keep fighting.”

Gray Deyo contributed to this story.

{Editor’s Note: This article is brought to thanks to an editorial partnership between The Lynchburg Times and The Tullahoma News. To read more of their articles, click here.}