Buckingham County High School’s varsity football team could not claim its second win in a row Friday night, but it showed its home crowd that it can be competitive even against one of the top teams in the James River District.

After being locked in a 15-15 tie with the Knights at halftime, the Amelia County High School Raiders did enough in the second half to improve to 3-0, leaving with a 22-15 victory.

“I was proud of our guys,” Buckingham Head Coach Seth Wilkerson said. “I think they played hard. We’re getting better each week, and we’ve just got to correct some small things, and I think we’re doing that.”

The Raiders are a squad that went 8-4 last season, including a 1-1 stretch in the postseason, and returned many of the players key to their balanced offensive attack.

Nevertheless, the Knights kept up with them for much of the game.

In the first half, Buckingham sophomore Xavier Copeland ran for a touchdown, and the team’s second score came when senior Deshawn Bartee returned a kickoff 77 yards for a touchdown. Senior Walter Edwards ran for the 2-point conversion.

“I thought Walter had a good game,” Wilkerson said, noting Edwards gained 78 yards on 12 carries and led the team with 14 tackles on defense.

Copeland finished with seven carries for 40 yards and a score.

Also on defense, senior Quantarius “Q.T.” Stanton recorded eight tackles and junior Nathan Brickhill registered seven.

On defense, “we held (the Raiders) some, but they had some long drives that kind of wore us down …” Wilkerson said.

Hurricane Florence will likely change the timing of the Knights’ (1-2) Friday road game against Central Lunenburg High School. A decision was set to be made Tuesday.