Where there’s a will there’s a way一and on Friday night Richmond Hill definitely had the will as Coach Matt LeZotte’s team found a way to beat Camden County, 24-20, in a crucial Region 1-6A game that locked up a playoff berth for the homecoming Wildcats.
Leading the way was junior Jaylen Deal who turned in what very well may have been the best individual defensive effort in the state last weekend and certainly one of the best ever for a Richmond Hill player.
Deal had 21 tackles: 12 solo, nine assisted, two tackles for a loss and a sack. He also forced two fumbles and intercepted a pass.
The win upped the once-beaten and unranked Wildcats overall record to 6-1, 2-0 in region play. The victory also assured Richmond Hill of finishing no worse than fourth in the region race.
In a worst case scenario Richmond Hill can finish 2-3 in region play as it has games remaining with Valdosta (9), Lowndes County (4) and Colquitt County (8) all of whom are ranked in the AJC’s top 10 this week.
Camden County (5-2, 0-2) and Tift County (3-4, 0-2) could conceivably also finish 2-3 although based on early results and remaining opponents that is not likely to happen. Should that happen Richmond Hill, with wins over Tift and Camden, would own the tiebreaker.
The Wildcats were caught in a similar scenario last year when they were 2-3 in region play and found themselves in a two-way tie with Camden for fourth-place. Camden, thanks to a 24-10 win over Richmond Hill, went to the playoffs.
Richmond Hill will be at Valdosta (6-1, 1-1) on Friday night and those Wildcats will be looking to atone for an 18-17 loss to Colquitt County despite putting up 434 yards including 201 rushing by Deron Foster. Valdosta had 15 penalties and lost two fumbles including one with 35 seconds to play as it was moving into field goal range.
Foster leads the region in rushing with 978 yards and 15 touchdowns which is second to teammate Marquis Fennell’s region leading 16. Fennell is second in the region in rushing with 765 yards.
The Wildcats beat Camden despite turning in their worst offensive performance of the season. Offensively Richmond Hill is averaging 253.0 yards per game which is last in the region and it mustered up only 170 against the visitors who, thanks to an excellent effort by quarterback William Jackson, put up 381 yards.
Jackson was a one-man show as he passed for 285 yards and added another 31 on the ground. Camden had 96 yards rushing while Richmond Hill got 98 yards passing from Gunner Mobley and added 72 on the ground.
However, Richmond Hill was able to take advantage of field position it got from its defense and jumped out to a 17-0 halftime lead and led 24-7 early in the fourth quarter. Thanks to a frenzied passing attack by Jackson the Wildcats scored twice in the final three minutes but the deficit was too much to overcome.
CJ Menzie had 45 yards with a touchdown to lead the Richmond Hill rushing attack while Amire Miller added 43 with a score. Miller now had 505 yards rushing on the season. Marquis Muhammad had a 5-yard scoring run and Cannon Kuryla added a 42-yard field goal and three extra points. Muhammad also had six catches for 52 yards.
Until the closing minutes the story of the game was the defense which completely throttled Camden.
While Deal was having a sensational night – he now has 63 tackles on the season which is 22 more than second-place Layton Steigleman—he was getting a lot of help from a unit which is giving up only 10 points per game.
Kahleel Scott and Kuryla had seven tackles each and Kuryla also had an interception. Sophomore Cory Sims had four tackles, two of them sacks. Eli Grant also had a sack among his six tackles.
