The Cornersville Middle School Bulldogs (5-1) reeled off their third straight win on Thursday night when they defeated the Richland Raiders 26-6 at home.

Despite running only four plays in the first half, the Bulldogs held an 8-0 lead at the break before opening up a 14-0 advantage midway through the third quarter.

Clutch scores

Richland (3-4) cut the deficit to 14-6 early in the fourth period, but Cornersville dashed the Raiders' comeback hopes by scoring two touchdowns in a span of a 1:40 to pull away for the 20-point victory.

With their defense and special teams accounting for two of their four touchdowns, the Bulldogs finished with only 117 yards of total offense, all on the ground, but averaged 6.9 yards per play.

"We didn't have the ball much tonight. Richland had the ball the entire first quarter so that's going to cut down on your offensive production," said CMS coach Ray Stocstill. "We had some big plays, but we also had some penalties that killed some drives too."

Stats

Running back Kolbe McMahon led Cornersville's ground attack by rushing for 70 yards and a touchdown on seven carries while also returning a punt 41 yards for a TD despite sporting a cast on his right arm.

Bulldog quarterback Eli Woodard tallied 37 yards rushing on six carries as well, while Darien Bush added a six-yard touchdown run.

Although they ran almost three times as many plays as Cornersville, the Raiders mustered only 126 yards from scrimmage overall and committed two turnovers. Aided by 10 tackles for loss, the Bulldogs limited Richland to only 65 yards rushing on 35 carries.

Quarterback Gus McGowan paced the Raiders ground game with 46 yards on 15 carries, while Austin Watson toted the ball nine times for 22 yards.

McGowan also completed 3-of-6 passes for 56 yards, but tossed an interception. Trey Stacey saw time at quarterback as well for the Raiders and completed just 1-of-5 passes for five yards to go along with an interception.

Cameron Curtis led Richland's receiving corps with two catches for 40 yards, while Stacey hauled in one pass for 16 yards.

Defensive standouts

Linebacker Trenton Warren spearheaded the Bulldogs' defensive effort by recording 13 tackles. Kade Fitzgerald also tallied eight tackles, while McMahon and Adam Qualls both registered seven tackles with McMahon recording an interception. Woodard and C.J. Coble notched six tackles apiece as well with Woodard returning an interception 60 yards for a touchdown.

"These guys don't get a lot of credit, but C.J. Coble, Adam Qualls, and Trenton Warren all did a phenomenal job tonight," said Stocstill. "Kolbe also played his best game of the year defensively and Eli is just an athlete and would probably be effective wherever we put him."

Richland played keep away on their opening possession of the game and advanced from their own 23 to the CMS 34 in 10 plays, but were eventually forced to punt after losing 10 yards on their next three snaps.

Following a Cornersville punt, the Raiders failed to pick up a first down on their second offensive series and were forced to kick the ball away.

First score

CMS' special teams finally broke the scoreless stalemate when McMahon returned the Richland punt 41 yards for a touchdown after finding an alleyway down the right sideline. Woodard then ran in the two-point conversion to give the Bulldogs an 8-0 lead with 1:21 left in the first half.

After the Raiders advanced to the Cornersville 35 on their final possession of the first half with the help of a 16-yard reception by Stacey, Curtis caught a long downfield pass from McGowan on the last play of the stanza before being tackled at the 10-yard line as time expired.

The Bulldogs lost the ball on downs at the Richland 34 on their opening drive of the second half, but McMahon set Cornersville up with excellent field position a few moments later by picking off a McGowan pass and returning in 39 yards down to the Raider 6.

Bush then scored on a six-yard TD run to stretch CMS' lead to 14-0 with 3:21 left in the third quarter before the Bulldogs failed on the two-point conversion attempt.

Final minutes

Richland would not go away quietly and put together an 11-play, 70-yard scoring drive that was capped by a Hunter Green three-yard touchdown run to narrow the gap to 14-6 with 5:31 left in the fourth period. Cameron Whitaker then tackled Green in the backfield on the two-point conversion attempt to keep the deficit at eight.

The Bulldogs mounted an immediate response and marched 73 yards to the end zone in six plays on their ensuing drive to forge a 20-6 advantage with 2:38 left.

Following a 10-yard run by Woodard, McMahon broke loose for a 29-yard gain to move the ball to the Raider 44. After Woodard sandwiched runs of nine and 19 yards around a four-yard scamper by Whitaker, Richland was called for a personal foul to give Cornersville a 1st and goal situation at the three-yard line. McMahon then bulled his way into the end zone on the next play to make it 20-6 with 2:38 left before the Raiders stopped the Bulldogs on the two-point conversion attempt.

Woodard drove the final nail into the Raiders coffin less than two minutes later when he picked off a pass by Stacey and returned it 60 yards for a TD to push the Bulldogs lead to 26-6 with :58 remaining.

The Bulldogs return to action on Thursday when they host county rival Forrest on Homecoming.