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'Just a wild night': Trojans win shootout over Vikings

Kyle Dawson, Aiken Standard, S.C.
·6 min read

Sep. 18—RIDGE SPRING-MONETTA 62, DENMARK-OLAR 58

MONETTA — It really was 8-0 after one quarter.

Ridge Spring-Monetta football coach Brian Smith wasn't sure exactly which words to say following Friday night's 62-58 win over Denmark-Olar, the Trojans' second consecutive shootout victory, but then he let rip a bunch of them about the shortcomings that had him wondering if 62 points would even be enough.

The main point came at the end, though — 1-0 in Region 3-A is 1-0 in Region 3-A.

"I'm disgusted, disappointed in the way we played defensively," he said. "I'm ticked off at our kicking game. We didn't do a great job. But, you know, offensively we did a lot of good things. I never felt like we got the running game going — we hit some big plays, but we never established the run. ... We've got a lot of work to do. We know what we've got to do, and we've got to show up and do it next week. Blackville-Hilda is not going to let us do the things we did tonight and get away with it."

Bret Smith and Elvie McDowell combined on the biggest play of the game, as each fell to the turf to smother Denmark-Olar's onside kick with 1:16 to play. The former waited a few extra seconds before getting up, ball in hand and another nail-biting victory finally secured.

"Just a wild night," Brian Smith said. "We at least let people get their money's worth, but I'm disappointed in how we played in a lot of ways. We've scored 58 (last week against Lewisville) and 62, but we needed every bit of it. I thought we needed 70 tonight. If we don't get that onside kick, 62 wouldn't have been enough."

The teams combined for 972 yards of total offense in a game that started at 7 p.m. yet ended after a lot of the 7:30 kickoffs.

The statistics were staggering. RS-M senior quarterback Remedee Leaphart equaled his jersey number with his touchdowns this week, scoring seven in total — five passing and two rushing to go with 331 yards of total offense — after scoring six a week ago.

Denmark-Olar quarterback Keithan Washington traded scores with him for most of the game, though, scoring five while rushing for 304 yards as RS-M defenders simply couldn't find a way to bring him to the turf.

"He's unbelievable. He's a junior, I think, isn't he? That ain't good for us," Brian Smith said. "He's a phenomenal player, and he keeps that pot going over there. I can't even explain to you why we can't tackle him, other than he's a phenomenal player and we're bad tacklers maybe. But he sure did a great job tonight."

Washington's fifth and final score of the night was a 20-yarder that again cut a 10-point RS-M lead to single digits. That came just over 3 minutes after Ben Kirk scored from 4 yards out, giving him the touchdown he earned after carrying the ball 14 times for 160 yards and giving the Trojans a spark with three different runs of 36 yards or more.

The teams combined for 42 points in the fourth quarter — 22 for the Trojans, 20 for the Vikings. Jamarious Lockett scored his third and fourth touchdowns of the night in a span of 2:24, with a Denmark-Olar kickoff return for a touchdown in between. That made it 54-44, the fifth time in the second half the Trojans had a double-digit lead.

It was a 28-16 lead for RS-M at the half, but Denmark-Olar trimmed into the deficit by scoring 22 points in the third quarter to make it 40-38 with 12 minutes to play.

Yet, before all of that, the teams played nearly 11 minutes of scoreless football before Leaphart found Lockett for a 5-yard score with 1:02 left in the first quarter to make it 8-0.

There was another scoreless stretch of nearly 8 minutes in the second, which Leaphart ended with a 10-yard touchdown run for a 14-8 lead.

After that, there wasn't a stretch of longer than 5:37 without someone finding the end zone.

Leaphart turned in some last-second-of-the-first-half heroics for the second week in a row, hitting Adams for a 23-yard touchdown with 0.4 seconds on the clock. That put RS-M ahead by 12 and capped a run of 2:24 during which 28 points were scored.

"I'm comfortable enough with him — he calls a couple of plays every now and then," Brian Smith said. "He'll suggest something, talk to me about it. He's developed as a quarterback and matured as a player to the point that he can say some of those things. He's earned a right to do that."

Denmark-Olar only led once, pulling ahead 16-14 with 2:06 left in the first half when Washington raced 68 yards to the end zone. RS-M was back in front 44 seconds later on Leaphart's second 10-yard touchdown run, and the Trojans led the rest of the way.

Up next for RS-M is a road date at defending Region 3-A champion Blackville-Hilda, which began league play Friday with a 14-0 win over Williston-Elko.

DO 0 16 22 20 — 58

RSM 8 20 12 22 — 62

SCORING SUMMARY

First Quarter

RSM — Remedee Leaphart 5 pass to Jamarious Lockett (Leaphart pass to Bret Smith) 1:02

Second Quarter

DO — Chris Sanders 7 run (Keithan Washington run) 10:04

RSM — Leaphart 10 run (conversion failed) 2:24

DO — Washington 68 run (conversion failed) 2:06

RSM — Leaphart 10 run (conversion failed) 1:22

RSM — Leaphart 23 pass to Ty Adams (Tykeem Martin run) 0:00

Third Quarter

DO — Washington 26 run (conversion failed) 11:32

RSM — Leaphart 10 pass to Lockett (conversion failed) 5:55

DO — TJ Williams 10 run (Washington run) 3:24

RSM — Leaphart 35 pass to Adams (conversion failed) 2:33

DO — Washington 29 run (Williams run) 0:57

Fourth Quarter

RSM — Lockett 11 run (Leaphart pass to Adams) 11:03

DO — 80 kickoff return (conversion failed) 10:49

RSM — Leaphart 13 pass to Lockett (conversion failed) 8:39

DO — Washington 35 run (Sanders run) 6:16

RSM — Ben Kirk 4 run (Leaphart run) 4:35

DO — Washington 20 run (conversion failed) 1:16

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing

DO — Keithan Washington 22-304-5, TJ Williams 13-73-1, Chris Sanders 6-70-1. Totals 41-447-7.

RSM — Ben Kirk 14-160-1, Remedee Leaphart 12-87-2, Jamarious Lockett 5-18-1. Totals 31-265-4.

Passing

DO — Keithan Washington 3-9-16-0-0.

RSM — Remedee Leaphart 12-20-244-5-1.

Receiving

DO — TJ Williams 1-11, No. 1 1-3, Chris Sanders 1-2. Totals 3-16.

RSM — Ty Adams 4-95-2, Jamarious Lockett 4-92-3, Tykeem Martin 3-29, Bret Smith 1-8. Totals 12-244-5.