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Before Friday’s game at Spring Valley, the Lower Richland Diamond Hornets had lost their last three regular season games and a battle with A.C. Flora in the Sportsarama by a total of four points.

They closed 2023 with one-point losses to Orangeburg-Wilkinson and Dreher. Then A.C. Flora scored a last-second touchdown to beat Lower Richland 14-13 in a game to start this season that didn’t count but still stung. That was followed by the regular season opener in which Lugoff-Elgin scored a late touchdown using a double-pass to win 35-34.

The Diamond Hornets finally put an end to the heartbreaking losses with a breakout performance in a dominating 41-7 win over the Vikings on August 30.

“It feels good to get this one,” Lower Richland head coach Marlin Taylor said. “Last three weeks from Sportsarama to today—even with our JV team last night—we lost by a point with one second left. So it’s been a tough three weeks, but I feel like we’ve got a good football team when we do things the right way.”

Christian Wilson led the way for Lower Richland with 169 yards rushing and three touchdowns on 21 carries.

“He’s our bell cow,” Taylor said of Wilson. “We try to ground and pound it, and he’s the kind of back that we need to do that.”

The Diamond Hornet defense was suffocating against Spring Valley. Daniel Gee had a team-high 11 tackles. Sergino Samuels got two of Lower Richland’s five sacks and returned an errant snap 55 yards for a touchdown. Travil Miller added a couple of interceptions.

“Defense played well tonight,” Taylor said. “I was a little disappointed in them last week. I let them know that. We can’t score 34 points and give up 35, but tonight they came back, redeemed themselves. Played a good Spring Valley football team and played Lower Richland football today.”

The Diamond Hornets started the contest with a 10-play, 55-yard drive. Christian Wilson did most of the damage with six carries for 40 yards, which included a 3-yard TD run. Brayshawn Gray added the extra point, and Lower Richland led 7-0 with 7:18 left in the first quarter.

After the Vikings netted negative two yards on six plays, Christian Wilson and the Diamond Hornets went to work again going 55 yards on three plays and then scoring on Christian Wilson’s 5-yard run to lead 14-0 with 3:08 left in the first.

Things went from bad to worse for Spring Valley as an errant snap sailed over quarterback Dylan Redden’s head and was picked up by Samuels in stride. He raced 55 yards to the end zone to give Lower Richland a 20-0 lead with 2:41 remaining in the first quarter.

The Spring Valley defense stiffened the rest of the half forcing two Diamond Hornet punts. The Vikings drove 53 yards to the Lower Richland 7-yard line but went backwards from there, and Miller grabbed the first of his two interceptions on a fourth-and-14 play.

The Vikings got another opportunity and drove to the Lower Richland 17, but on fourth-and-6, Miller collected his second interception to close the first half.

Spring Valley capitalized on a Diamond Hornet fumble late in the third quarter when Redden hit Terrance Murril in the end zone for a 24-yard touchdown. Grady Tucker added the extra point to cut the Lower Richland lead to 20-7 with 3:22 left in the third quarter.

The Viking momentum lasted all of 12 seconds as Chad Wilson returned the ensuing kickoff 70 yards to give the Diamond Hornets a 28-7 advantage.

Spring Valley then lost 18 yards on its next drive, and a short punt gave Lower Richland the ball at the 38-yard line. Three plays later, Christian Wilson found the end zone from four yards out, and the Diamond Hornets led 35-7 with 19.3 seconds left in the third.

Lower Richland added one final score when quarterback Aden Jones completed a 46-yard, six-play drive with a 1-yard TD run with 8:29 left in the game.

“I feel like we’ve got a good football team when we do things the right way,” Taylor said. “When we try to make our own decisions and do boneheaded stuff, it never works out for us. When they do what they’re coached to do, they’re pretty dadgum good.”

The post Diamond Hornets get back on the winning side first appeared on Columbia Star.

September 5, 2024 | Columbia Star, The (SC)
Author/Byline: ops@our-hometown.com | Section: Sports