Lower Richland’s Solomon Kelson powers through the tackles of Spring Valley’s Marcel Goodwin and Brent Mills.
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The Lower Richland Diamond Hornets opened up a 21-0 first quarter lead en route to a 41-9 win over the Spring Valley Vikings Friday, August 29 at the Diamond Mine.
“I think we just had some big plays,” Lower Richland head coach Marlin Taylor said of his team’s fast start. “We had a turnover and Gino (Sergino Samuels) ran it in. I think it was a fumble, not exactly sure what happened. We had big plays in the first quarter. They closed it there for a little while. We messed up on some drives, and it cost us some drives late in the quarter. We probably could have put it away a little earlier, but we didn’t execute well. We didn’t do the little things well. We got back on track later.”
Lower Richland set the tone early with an 11-play, 73-yard drive. Solomon Kelson carried the ball the twice for eight yards. Then Gerald Gibson connected with Chad Wilson to the Spring Valley 46. A penalty against Spring Valley moved the ball to the 31. Gibson and Wilson connected again later in the drive and another Spring Valley penalty helped move the ball to the six. Three plays later, Gibson carried the ball two yards for a touchdown. BrayShawn Gray added the extra point and the Diamond Hornets, led 7-0 with 4:55 left in the first quarter.
Lower Richland’s Sergino Samuels recovers a fumble and flips into the end zone for a touchdown against Spring Valley. Photos by Mike Maddock
It took less than two minutes for Lower Richland to find the end zone again. After the Diamond Hornet defense forced a three-and-out, Gibson threw a bomb to Wilson on the first play of the ensuing drive for a 52-yard touchdown. Gray tacked on his second extra point and Lower Richland led to 14-0 with 3:10 left in the quarter.
The Diamond Hornets’ defense got into the scoring column on the next drive. Maxwell Wilson broke through on a blitz and forced a fumble. Samuels picked up the ball and flipped into the end zone for a touchdown. Gray added a third extra point and Lower Richland led 21-0 with 2:56 left in the first.
“The defense played very well tonight,” Taylor said. “Coach (Harry) Curnell and his staff did a heck of a job preparing our kids for this. Anytime a defense only gives up seven, they played a heck of a game tonight. My hats off to the defensive staff and our kids.”
Spring Valley got on the scoreboard in the second quarter with a safety, and the Vikings went into halftime down 21-2.
Spring Valley carried the momentum over to the third quarter. After recovering an onside kick, Spring Valley traveled 31 yards in four plays. Williams connected with Braden Lawton twice for 12 yards to get to the Lower Richland 17. Then Zion Bennett covered the remaining yards to the end zone for a touchdown. Grady Tucker added the extra point to close the gap to 21-9 with 10:21 left in the quarter.
The Diamond Hornets quashed any comeback with an 11-play, 55-yard drive. Penalties helped Lower Richland move the ball into Spring Valley territory. A 19-yard pass from Gerald to Solomon Kelson got the Diamond Hornets to the edge of the red zone. Kelson capped off the drive two plays later with an 18-yard touchdown run. Gray added the extra point to extend the lead to 28-9 with 6:51 left in the third.
Kelson tacked on an 11-yard touchdown run and Zaiear Yates found the end zone from a yard out in the fourth quarter to set the final score.
“I challenged the offensive line after last week,” Taylor said. Lower Richland lost 28-14 to Lugoff-Elgin “That was probably the worst game they played, and we have five seniors up front. That was probably the worst game they’ve played in their careers. So I challenged them personally to come out tonight and set a tone. Let’s set a tone and play Lower Richland football, and we ran the football.”
Gibson completed 7-of-13 passes for 155 yards and one touchdown for Lower Richland. Kelson led the way for the Diamond Hornets on the ground with 76 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries. Yates added 48 yards and a touchdown on ten carries. Wilson caught three passes for 102 yards and one touchdown.
Lower Richland improves to 1-1 and will travel to Colleton County on Friday, September 5.
“No disrespect to Spring Valley, they won their first game in 24 tries last week, but I saw some predictions in the paper, and heard some other people talking. They had us down as an underdog at home pretty big by some of the numbers I saw so they did put a chip on our shoulder,” Taylor said. “That’s what we used this week as some bulletin board material to get our kids fired up and ready to play.”
Spring Valley falls to 1-1 and will travel to Chapin next Friday.
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