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It was an odd scene at the end of Friday night’s football contest between Atlee and visiting Patrick Henry. As both teams huddled on the field after clock expired, the Raiders were cheerful and upbeat while on the other end of the field, the Patriots were sober, concerned and heading back to the drawing board despite winning the game 21-14.

  The contest between the two country rivals was one of contrasts. The Patriots came into the game as a perennial region power while the Raiders had the reputation of being the county doormat. But in the end, the injury riddled Patrick Henry team, limped away with a win against an Atlee squad that seemed to grow exponentially as the game reached the fourth quarter.

  Patrick Henry came into the contest missing a vital part of their offense, playing without their starting center and his backup, both of whom out with injury. To compound matters, the player taking over the role had little time to practice the position. “We had two centers, both hurt and we had to make a center in three days and obviously it didn’t work,” said Patriots’ head coach Ray Long.

  Therefore it was no surprise that the result was numerous bad snaps that bounced through the hands of quarterback Brandon Cash. Even the balls that made it into his hands were misplaced and interrupted the Patriots’ offensive flow. “The ball was snapped high,” Long said. “The ball was snapped low. If your center is not snapping the ball from here (midsection) down, it throws the timing of the offense off and we had no offense as a result of that.” Two of the Patriots three scores came on long plays, and the team could not sustain a drive throughout the contest.

  On the other side of the field, Atlee showed promise early on but kept shooting itself in the foot with penalties or ill-timed mistakes. “The first half we got in a bind,” said Raiders’ head coach Roscoe Johnson. “We were doing some good things and we were doing some things not too good.”

  As the first quarter clock wound down and the game scoreless, Atlee took to the field hoping to get reach the end zone. Sitting at first-and-10 from their own 41, the Raiders were called for holding, which dropped them back to first and 25. Getting no production on their next three plays, and looking at fourth-and-25, Atlee was forced to punt.

  On the ensuing play, Patrick Henry’s Adrian Cavanaugh blasted up the middle to block the kick and the Patriots recovered on the 29 yard line.

  Patrick Henry maintain possession through the quarter break and on the first play of the second, Cash found Raquis Morris for a 22-yard touchdown pass to give the Patriots a 7-0 lead.

  The two teams continued a battle for field position through several possessions until Atlee took over with 3:52 left in the half looking to notch their first score of the season. But the Raiders were flagged for a false start dropping them to first-and-15 from their own 21.

  However, Atlee quarterback Dylan Garthright found Micah Spiers for a 13-yard reception. Sitting at third-and-three from the 24 with 2:44 in the half and the Raiders called time to set up the play.

  When play resumed, Garthright rolled out of the pocket to avoid pressure from Cavanaugh and thought he found a wide open Spiers. However, Patrick Henry’s Brandon Long stepped in front of the throw and took it to the end zone for a 14-0 Patriots lead.

  On their next possession, Atlee drove down the field and one again had a chance to get on the scoreboard in the closing seconds of the half but the 25-yard field goal attempt by Jordan Booth was wide right.

  Midway through the third quarter, Patrick Henry appeared to break things open when Cash took a designed play to the left and sprinted 52-yards to the end zone to put the Patriots up 21-0. “We knew he could get outside on the defense,” Long said. “It’s just that we couldn’t get out there because the timing, the snaps were so bad.”

  Johnson was not surprised by the Patriots’ ability to score quickly. “They broke some things and I thought they probably would given the opportunity,” he said.

  Facing a 21-0 deficit, Johnson attempted to keep his players in the game. “I just kept telling our guys, just keep your heads up, we’re fine,” he said. “We put in an offense this year that at any point in time we can score. It’s just taken a little bit longer than what we expected.”

  Though it took a while, over the final 10 minutes of the game, the Raiders finally showed the potential that Johnson knew they possessed.

  Garthright, who finished the night with the top passing performance in the region, going 25-for-42 for 262 yards, put on a brilliant display all night long rolling out of the pocket and throwing with accuracy. “I told him be patient, wait for your receivers to get open,” Johnson said.

  Perhaps the biggest surprise on the night was that time and again, Garthright found Tyler Earley to be his more sure-handed receiver. “He’s never played football before at all,” Johnson said of the junior that transferred from hockey to the gridiron. “I’ll tell you, that little joker, he’s not afraid of anything…I told the staff, ‘I’ll tell you right now, he’s going to be special.’ He’s not fast but he does everything the right way.”

  With 6:27 to play and looking at 1-10 from the Patriot 37, Garthright found Jaried Epps breaking down the right side and delivered a perfect pass in stride that Epps took in for a score trimming the Patriots’ lead to 21-7.

  For the Raiders there was almost a visible lift in confidence with the score. “It was huge,” Johnson said noting that the team did not score until the third game last season and even that was a fluke. “For this one to actually be a touchdown where we drove…We took our offense and drove down there and we scored. That was the best feeling in the world.”

  The momentum carried over to the Raiders’ defense that forced Patrick Henry into a three-and-out on their next possession.

  A short punt gave Atlee the ball on the Patriots’ 40 yard line with 3:43 to play. On the first play, Elie took a handoff and roared up the right sideline for a 30-yard gain. Two plays later, it was Elie again, rumbling across the goal to put Atlee within striking distance at 21-14.

  But the clock soon became Atlee’s greatest enemy. Though the defense once again forced a three-and-out, there was only 1:11 left on the clock when they took possession on their own 28 and no time outs left.

  And when they needed it the most, Patrick Henry’s drained defense did the job, holding off the Atlee attack to seal the win.

  Though they lost, Atlee appeared to gain invaluable confidence in the game’s final minutes that could pay dividends down the road.

  As for Patrick Henry? “We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Long said.

  With the problems at center, Long has begun to consider alternatives to this season’s new spread offense. “We’ll have to scrap that offense and go to something else,” Long said. “We don’t want to do that this time of the season but we might have to. We might have to go back underneath the center and play old Patrick Henry football.”

Patrick Henry 0 14 7 0 – 21
Atlee         0 0 0 14 – 14
PH- Morris 22 pass from Cash (Dyer kick)
PH – Long 27 interception return (Dyer kick)
PH – Cash 52 run (Dyer kick)
A – Epps 26 pass from Garthright (Booth kick)
A – Elie 8 run, (Booth kick)