WALES — Oak Hill’s offense put up every point scored in Saturday’s Campbell Conference Class D tilt with Medomak Valley in the span of 2 minutes and 26 seconds in the second quarter. 

The Raiders’ defense had to work a little harder to hold up its end of the bargain. After not bending at all in the first half, it bent but didn’t break in the second half, and posted its first shutout of the season, 21-0, over the Panthers.

Matt Strout threw for 263 yards and rushed for all three scores as Oak Hill improved to 3-0. Medomak, which is a Class C school in terms of enrollment and thus is not eligible for the playoffs, dropped to 1-2. 

Steven Gilbert caught six passes for 158 yards and also recovered a fumble for the Raiders.

“We feel pretty good,” Gilbert said. “As long as we keep showing up to practice every day willing to work and focused, I think we’ll fare pretty well.”

A Raider fumble at Medomak’s 10-yard line on the game’s opening series turned the first quarter into a battle for field position.

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The Raiders ultimately won that battle and started the second-quarter scoring outburst.

After forcing a punt, they started at their own 48. Facing third-and-15, Strout connected with Gilbert on a 26-yard pass play to extend the drive. Another 18-yard connection from Strout to Gilbert got the Raiders down to the 3, and Strout took it in from the 2 with 9:13 left in the first half.

Oak Hill shanked the ensuing kickoff, but the Raiders were alert enough to recover it at midfield and turned potential disaster into good field position and another scoring opportunity.

“He was supposed to kick that as high as he can, and the kids made a good reaction play, which is good,” Oak Hill coach Stacen Doucette said. 

Strout threw to Darryn Bailey for 39 yards on the first play from scrimmage, then ran up the middle for an 11-yard touchdown and a 14-0 lead with 8:50 to go in the half.

The Panthers went three-and-out on their next possession and punted it back over at Oak Hill’s 44. On first down, Strout threw to the right flat to Gilbert, who weaved his way through traffic before being tackled at the 1. Strout plunged in from there to make it 21-0 with 6:47 left.

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“We have some pretty good receivers and I thought Matt threw a pretty good ball today,” Doucette said. “I thought the offensive line did a pretty good job of giving us time.”

After managing just 40 total yards and one first down in the first half, Medomak started the second half with its best drive of the game, marching from its own 20 to the Raiders’ 3 in 10 plays.

Led by Peter Flaherty and Austin Noble, the Raiders pushed the Panthers back a yard over the course of three running plays, then appeared to stop them on fourth-and-goal on an incomplete pass. 

Oak Hill was flagged for holding on the play, however, giving the Panthers another fourth down play from the 2. Medomak QB Eli Miller tried to follow the middle of his line into the end zone on a keeper, but was stacked up at the 1 by Bailey and Jacob Greenwood.

Medomak drove into the red zone again on its next possession, only to be stopped on downs at the Raiders’ 16.

“They were slanting a lot, but we got the job done — just made some corrections,” Gilbert said. “It was all about heart. We all pushed and all did our jobs 100 percent, all day.”

Two turnovers — an interception by Bailey and a fumble recovered by Brian Thorpe — kept the Panthers from making anything out of a second half in which they outgained the Raiders, 105-64.

“We were in a position a couple of times to score, and we talked about it after the game, being able to finish those,” Medomak Valley coach Ryan Snell said. “The next step for us as a program is being able to finish drives, especially against a program like Oak Hill. We’ve got to take advantage of those opportunities when we get them.”


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