CLAY, W.Va. — About the only thing Class AA No. 3 Roane County hadn’t effectively done through the first two-plus quarters of Friday’s matchup at No. 9 Clay County was pass the ball.
A traditional Wing-T team, the Raiders hadn’t tried to.
When Roane finally went to the air, much like everything else it did throughout the evening, that worked as well.
On his only throw of the night, Brennen Carpenter delivered a downfield dart to Brodey Proctor, who hauled in the pass behind the Panther secondary and raced to the end zone for a 60-yard touchdown reception.
By that point, the visitors had the contest well in hand and led by 42 points with the midway point of the third quarter approaching. Roane went on to score once more and finished off a commanding 55-7 win over Clay in a rematch of a first-round playoff game won by the Panthers in 2025.
“We went back and watched last year’s playoff game, and one of the things that bugged us the most was we allowed Clay to control the line of scrimmage,” said Roane coach Paul Burdette. “So we challenged our guys early in the week to control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and take care of what they can take care of. Our skill guys can do a lot of things, but we can’t do it without those guys up front.”
The teams exchanged punts to start, and when Roane (3-0) regained possession, it covered 58 yards in four plays, producing the game’s first points on Koltyn Starcher’s 1-yard touchdown run at the 6:37 mark of the opening quarter. The point-after try was blocked, but the tone had been set.
On the second series for the Panthers (2-1), Logan Wilson helped force a three-and-out by sacking Clay quarterback Cooper Collins. After the Raiders took over at their 45, they crossed midfield on the first play, moved into the red zone shortly after and got a 2-yard quarterback sneak for a touchdown from Carpenter, who connected with Charter Cottrell on the 2-point pass to leave the visitors with a 14-point lead.
The Raiders continued to excel on their fourth series, which culminated with a Javon Letourneau 22-yard touchdown run after he got to the edge and outraced Clay to the end zone 1:35 into the second quarter to make it 21-0.
“Our guys had a great week of preparation. They were tuned in each and every day,” Burdette said. “Every fine detail that was there, they tuned in and they understood it and absorbed it.”
Clay countered with its best and only scoring series of the night, reaching the end zone on Brody Scarbro’s 10-yard TD run, which combined with TJ Pritt’s point-after kick, brought the home team to within 14.
Yet any momentum garnered by the Panthers vanished immediately as Letourneau returned the ensuing kickoff 93 yards to pay dirt and Brock Williams made the PAT for a 28-7 advantage.
The Raiders scored a final first-half touchdown on Starcher’s 3-yard run to lead 34-7, then prevented the Panthers from cutting into their deficit when Collins’ pass fell incomplete on fourth-and-goal from the Roane 2 with 4 seconds left in the half.
“Roane’s a good football team. They proved it tonight,” Panthers’ coach Jason Nichols said. “They were better up front. They were better everywhere. We came into this game with a lot of confidence. Sometimes in life, you just have to see where you’re at and get better.”
Roane went to halftime having out-gained Clay 226-83, but hardly let up from the outset of the second half.
Instead, the Raiders immediately forced a three-and-out and Starcher broke off a 58-yard run on their first offensive play of the second half, leading to Proctor’s 2-yard TD run and a 35-point lead after Letourneau crossed the goal line on a 2-point run.
Chase Pinson scored on a 5-yard run with inside 7 minutes left in the matchup to cap the scoring.
“November 12th, 2025 was 303 days ago. I think we remembered that,” Burdette said in reference to Clay’s 2025 playoff win over Roane. “We take it one game at a time, and we never look past anybody, but somewhere in the back of all of our minds, that kept eating on us.”
Roane totaled 430 yards, including 364 rushing.
Starcher led all players with 145 rushing yards on 13 carries, while Proctor added 93 yards on 12 runs.
The Panthers were limited to 101 total yards in their first loss this season, while Collins completed 6-of-21 passes for 55 yards.
“They were able to beat us on the edges and get pressure to us, and then they were pressing us pretty good with their defensive backs,” Nichols said. “We weren’t getting off of that, weren’t getting open, and the quarterback is running for his life. You have to learn from it, get better and say, we were in this situation at the end of the regular season game with Roane last year and we have two choices. We can either lay down or we can get back to work on Monday.”