WEST POINT — A friendly competition between brothers is nothing new for Drake and Drew Riley.
“We’re competing with each other all the time,” said Drake Riley, a senior running back at Oak Hill Academy. “We’ve been doing it our whole lives. I always want to do something a little better than him, and if I don’t, he’ll tell me about it.”
On Friday night, that sibling rivalry produced positive results for the school’s football team.
Drew, a junior, rushed for 169 yards and three touchdowns, while Drake added 113 yards and a score to help Oak Hill Academy manhandle Manchester Academy 34-12. The Riley brothers, who combined for 34 carries, accounted for 282 of Oak Hill Academy’s 346 rushing yards and four of the team’s five touchdowns.
“We felt like coming in here that we can run the ball,” said Oak Hill Academy coach Tony Stanford, whose team improved to 4-3 and 2-1 in the Mississippi Association of Independent School’s Class AA, District 2. “Those two (Drew and Drake Riley) did a great job, and the offensive line was outstanding.”
While the Riley twins stole the headlines — Drew scored on runs of 1, 4, and 6 yards — Oak Hill Academy’s offensive and defensive lines set the tone and helped the Raiders pound away all night. Oak Hill Academy’s defensive line sacked quarterback Whister Hitt three times, and the Raiders forced two turnovers, interceptions by Drew Riley and Trevor Turner.
“Just bull-rushing all night,” said defensive lineman Caleb Roberson, who doubles as Oak Hill Academy’s starting left tackle. “We wanted to win the battle up front on both sides, and I think we did that. Offensively, our coaches told us this week we’d be able to run the ball and they kept calling off tackle, off tackle, off tackle. That’s a fun game for us.”
It didn’t start off so fun. Manchester Academy took the opening kick and marched 69 yards for a touchdown, capped by a 5-yard touchdown pass from Hitt to wide receiver Desi Scott, who led the game with six catches for 125 yards. When the extra point failed, the Mavericks owned a 6-0 lead.
It didn’t last.
Drew Riley scored a pair of first-half touchdowns, the first a 6-yarder that punctuated a 14-play, 71-yard drive that gave Oak Hill Academy a 7-6 lead.
In the second quarter, Drew Riley added a 4-yard touchdown run, finishing a drive that was kept alive by a 19-yard run from wide receiver Blake Thomas on a fake 38-yard field goal.
“That was big because we needed points right there,” Stanford said.
Drew Riley, the more explosive of the two, added a 1-yard touchdown run in the third quarter to help the Raiders pull away. Asked about the dominating effort of Oak Hill Academy’s ground game, Drew Riley deflected the attention to the offensive front.
“This was the best the offensive line has blocked all year,” Drew Riley said. “There were holes for us all night.”
The win also was Drew Riley’s first game back after missing last week’s game against Heritage Academy due to injury.
“I hated last week. I wanted to be out there,” Drew Riley said. “But my guys just kept telling me to wait, I’d get my chance.”
Quarterback Riley Pierce added a 1-yard touchdown run, and Drake Riley capped the scoring with a 1-yard plunge early in the fourth quarter.
“This was a huge win,” Stanford said. “We knew we had to have it, one of our best efforts of the season.”
For Drake Riley, who had one of Oak Hill Academy’s three sacks along with Robinson and Mac Newell, the win was sweet, even if it came with extra trash talk from his brother.
“I know as soon as I get to the locker room he’s going to tell me about the fact he scored three touchdowns and I only got one,” Drake Riley said with a smile. “But that’s OK. As long as we win, he can say whatever he wants.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat.
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