LAURINBURG — Richard Bailey got the first 119 wins of his coaching career over the 12 years he spent at Jack Britt. He’ll need to guide the Scotland football team to a win over the Buccaneers on Friday in order to get win No. 201.
“You get a little emotional thinking about it, when you go back and think that’s where it all started,” Bailey said. “Even though there’s been a pretty big turnover, I still know many of the teachers over there and a lot of the coaches. Coach (Brian) Randolph coached with me at Jack Britt during my time there.”
Randolph and the Buccaneers will visit Pate Stadium for a game that has big playoff implications for both teams.
The best outcome the Fighting Scots could hope for is a third-place finish in the Sandhills Athletic Conference.
Several different scenarios could unfold within the conference standings on Friday night, depending on how Pinecrest’s game against Seventy-First ends. If top-ranked Richmond beats Purnell Swett, Pinecrest beats the Falcons and Scotland beats the Buccaneers, for example, Scotland would finish in a three-way tie for third place with Jack Britt and Seventy-First. If Richmond, Seventy-First and Jack Britt win, those three teams would finish with five wins apiece and Scotland would finish right behind them at 3-4.
Scotland (4-4, 3-3 SAC) is out of contention for the conference’s two automatic playoff bids, and the Scots know they need to win on Friday in order to improve their playoff resume.
And the game will mean a little more for Scotland’s 10 seniors as they wrap up the last regular season of their high school careers.
“It’s emotional for those guys because they’re playing probably for the last time at Pate Stadium,” Bailey said.
“It’s an important game for us,” he added. “It’s an important game for both programs. And then you throw in the emotional aspect of that’s where I came from. Their running back right now (Chancellor Johnson), his older brother (Eric) played for me.”
Johnson is Jack Britt’s leading rusher this season with an average of 75 yards per game.
The Buccaneers (5-5, 4-2) defeated Seventy-First 23-21 last week after Michael Matthews scored the game-winning touchdown on a 1-yard run on the last play of the game. Matthews rushed for 94 yards and three touchdowns on 17 carries in that game.
After finishing the nonconference portion of their schedule with a 1-4 record, the Buccaneers started conference play by grinding out a 15-14 win over Lumberton in four overtimes.
Jack Britt’s other conference wins were against Purnell Swett, Hoke and Seventy-First. The Buccaneers lost to Richmond and Pinecrest.
Scotland is coming off a 23-8 loss at Richmond last week. Despite the result, Bailey said he saw some good things out of his team.
“Even though we lost, I think we came away with a little momentum,” Bailey said. “We won’t play a better team than Richmond in the small-4A playoffs probably, unless we get to the state championship game somehow. We just have to be willing to play as hard as we played against Richmond against everybody.”
Series history
Bailey hasn’t lost to his former team since he took over at Scotland in 2012. The Scots have seven straight victories against the Buccaneers dating back to 2011.
