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Despite their loss to Davidson, the Red and White were confident in a bounce-back win over Richmond for multiple reasons. First of all, the team wanted to redeem itself from their embarassing loss. Secondly, "the steady head, sure leg and encouraging voice of 'Bill' Devlin," team coach and stand-in LT in Gardner's absense, was returning. Finally, Gardner himself was expected to return. The paper mockingly called Gardner "Mr. Lame Knee," a jab at how long Gardner had been out of the game. Similar jabs had been taken in Red and White, which quipped at one point "Since O. Max [Gardner] has his knee sprained he has been devoting half his time to chemistry; and half to B[aptist] F[emale] U[niversity]," a local all-girls school which later became Meredith College (The (Raleigh) Morning Post, November 26th, 1902, p. 5; Red and White, Vol. 4, No. 3 (November 1902), p. 26). Despite the rumors and mockings, Gardner did not return to play in the game.

Though Red and White made no prediction on the coming Richmond game, the local papers advertised the game exuberantly. The papers also reported that Richmond was bringing "a large crowd of rooters" with them. While Richmond was facing the Red and White in a football game, that same day the Spiders' debate team was facing Wake Forest in a yearly debate hosted in opposition to the Thanksgiving football games in the city. The subject of debate in 1902 was to discuss whether "American honor" demanded that the United States grant independence to the Phillipines. To encourage more people to attend, the game was drummed up to be "without any exceptions the best game of the season," going on to write that Richmond was the champion of eastern Virginia. Interestingly, one of the articles on the game concluded by asking for the citizens of Raleigh to "come out tomorrow to see the 'Preachers' and 'Farmers,'" referring to Richmond as the Preachers. As best as I could find, the team had only been called the Colts until around 1892, after which they assumed the moniker of Spiders. They were likely called Preachers due to the school's long-standing ties to the Baptist faith (The (Raleigh) Morning Post, November 26th, 1902, p. 5; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, November 27th, 1902, p. 5).

The Crimson and Blue of Richmond had not quite had the football season Raleigh papers had aggrandized. Led by new head coach Graham Hobson, the Spiders opened their season with a 30-0 win over Randolph-Macon in Richmond on October 18th. The Richmond team went on to lose to the Virginia Military Institute 0-33 and Washington & Lee 0-29 (both in Lexington), but then won their next two games, smashing Hope Memorial Military Academy 50-0 and earning the rights to champion of east Virginia by defeating Hampden–Sydney College in Richmond 23-11. That gave the Spiders a 3-2 record heading in to their final game of the season.

The Richmond team arrived on the at night on the 26th and stayed on A&M's campus.

The weather for the day was reported to be that of "a football day"--cold for the spectators, with a raw wind coming from the west, but good weather for the players, who stayed warm by their rapid playing. Reportedly, the crowd was fairly large in size when considering the weather, but, as one report noted, "if the temperature was zero there would be spectators" (The Asheville Citizen, November 28th, 1902, p. 6). The Agromeck agreed, calling the day "an ideal day for a football game" (The Agromeck, Vol. 1 (1903), p. 148). The Richmond Dispatch, on the other hand, wrote that a stiff westward wind made the weather "very cold" and that the attendance was small (Richmond Dispatch, November 28th, 1902, p. 3). The first half of the game was 25 minutes, while the second half lasted 20 minutes.

Richmond won the coin toss and chose to receive the kick and defend the north goal. Roberson kicked off for A&M, sending the ball 40-45 yards past midfield. The kick was returned 10-15 yards by a Richmond player. During the return, Sutherland tripped over himself and fell, badly hurting his nose. Though it was believed at the time to be broken, it turned out to instead just be badly hurt. Sutherland was repleaced by Woodfin. Spilman gained 2-3 yards for the Spiders, and then Lankford gained another 1 yard. On third down, Morgan kicked the ball 30 yards away for Richmond; Darden received the kick and returned it for 5 yards. Welch then tore off on a long, 35-45-yard run, followed by a 10 yard pickup by Tucker. After a second run of little to no gain by Devlin, Devlin ran the remaining 6 yards for the touchdown, with Roberson successfully making the goal. The News and Observer wrote that the first touchdown took 32 minutes. This is obviously a typo, but The Morning Post does not give an estimation of the time. Perhaps it was meant to be 3-1/2 minutes? Either way, the Farmers scored the first touchdown of the day, earning themselves an early 6-0 lead.

The Spiders got the ball back and delivered a short, 15-yard kickoff. Gaither attempted to recover the kick, but fumbled the ball. Richmond recovered the fumble, but did little with their good fortune; Anderton, Spilman, and Morgan combined for 5 yards before Morgan kicked the ball 20 yards away. Roberson caught the kick and returned it 15 yards. Welch then carried for no gain, followed by a 5-6 yard run by Koon and a 4-5 yard carry by Tucker. After a series of 11 carries of mostly 1-5 yards by Devlin, Roberson, Welch, Neal, and Gulley, highlighted by a a 15-yard run by Roberson and a 10-yard run by Gulley, Welch broke off on a 23-25 yard run, but was stopped just short of of the goal line, and then punched through the Crimson and Blue line. Roberson kicked his second successful goal of the day and after another 13-1/2 minutes of play the score stood 12-0 in favor of the Farmers.

Richmond delivered another kickoff, this time sending the ball 20 yards to Carpenter, who returned the kick 10-12 yards. After his long return, Carpenter immediately carried it another 15 yards. After that, either Tucker or Gulley carried the ball 7 yards, with the News and Observer noting that the player used a trick play. After that, Devlin carried the ball 10-11 yards. After a few more carries by Gaither, Koon, Tucker, and Roberson that brought the ball 13 yards, Roberson had the ball on third down with 1 yard to go. Roberson carried the ball 3 yards, successfully converting the down, but fumbled the ball to Richmond in the process around Richmond's 20 yard line. Rowe advanced the ball 2-3 yards for Richmond, but the Virginians were again unable to produce a first down, so Morgan kicked the ball 20 yards downfield to Tucker, who returned the kick 3-4 yards. Gulley then carried the ball, breaking through the line for a 45-yard run for a touchdown. Roberson kicked his third straight goal kick, and the Red and White were up 18-0 after another 4-1/2 minutes of play.

Morgan kicked off again for Richmond, this time sending the ball 30-40 yards. Devlin returned the kick, and, "like an irresistible force," carried the ball back 35 yards. Roberson carried the ball another 10 yards, followed by Welch for 15-20 yards. After a run for little gain by Carpenter, Roberson picked up 8-10 yards and then a long 20-22 yard run by Tucker. Carpenter got another 10 yards, and the first half ended with A&M just 5-10 yards from scoring again. The first half was dominated by the Raleigh boys, and filled with mostly short runs against the defenseless Richmond eleven. As The Morning Post put it, "The playing grew rather monotonous before the first half was over, and [t]he cheering became listless."

At the start of the second half, the Red and White decided to shuffle around their players. Though the News and Observer wrote that Devlin requested to be taken out, The Morning Post wrote that Devlin was withdrawn "by consent, as the Virginians had no chance with him against them." To replace Devlin, Carpenter shifted over to fill Devlin's former position at LT. Beebe took Carpenter's spot at LG, with Gaither stepping up to take Beebe's former spot at RG. Additionally, Shannonhouse switched out for Koon at LHB at the start of the second half. Richmond started the new half with the familiar act of kicking off, sending the ball 30 yards to Darden, who carried the ball 20 yards back. Carpenter ran the ball between 2-1/2 and 4 yards, and then Tucker ran 5-7 yards. The short drive was ended when the Farmers lost the ball for being offsides. Starting closer to the A&M goal line than they had been nearly the entire game, Richmond again stalled. Lankford drove the ball 1 yard and and Spilman drove the ball 2 yards. Lankford carried the ball a second time in an attempt to make third down, but the Spiders were stopped short, and Raleigh got the ball back. After getting the ball back, Welch carried the ball for no gain, "but then fleet-footed Gulley... took the ball, tucked it under his arm [and] flew away down the field" for a 75-yard touchdown run called "the sensational feature of the game." Roberson successfully made a fourth straight goal kick of the day to set the score at 24-0 after 2-3/4 minutes of play in the second half.

Richmond kicked off again, this time delivering a 25-35 yard kick to Beebe, who returned the kick 15-17 yards. The Farmers continued to tear down the field, with a series of about 10 yard runs executed by Neal, Carpenter, Tucker, followed by a 20 yard run by Gulley. Finally breaking their impressive streak of long runs, Shannonhouse and Tucker combined for 13 yards in two runs. Carpenter capped off the drive with a 2 yard run to the goal line to make the score 30-0 in favor of the Farmers after another 4 minutes of playing and another successful kick by Roberson.

Morgan kicked off yet again for Richmond, sending the ball 30 yards downfield to Darden, who carried it back 16-17 yards, and then Neal then picked up 2-3 yards. The papers then disagree slightly on the order of events, with either Shannonhouse or Carpenter making a 12 or 13 yard run and then another 1-2 yards by either Gulley or Tucker. Carpenter then carried the ball 6-7 yards. While the News and Observer wrote that the ball was fumbled at this point, while The Morning Post said that "Richmond got the ball on a technicality." Once Richmond got the ball, Lankford got 1-2 yards, and then either Rowe or Spilman got about 3 yards, but, still short, the Spiders decided to kick the ball away. Here, the game summaries diverge significantly. The News and Observer said that Morgan kicked the ball away, kicking the ball 55 yards to Darden, who carried the ball back 10 yards. After that, Gulley carried the ball for no gain, Carpenter logged 3 more yards, and Gulley, while trying to gain the last two yards, tripped and fell, causing the only turnover on downs by the Farmers that game. The Morning Post, on the other hand, said that Morgan's kick went 15 yards past Neal's head (not Darden), who returned the ball 5 yards. After Neal's carry, A&M lost the ball on downs. The Spiders continued to stall: Spilman gained between 1/2 and 1 yard, followed by a run for no gain by Lankford. Facing third down and a distance as nearly as long as their longest gain that day, and closer than they had been nearly all day to the Red and White goal, Richmond decided to attempt a goal from field by dropkick. The Crimson and Blue's first attempt was blocked, but the Spiders recovered the ball. Lankford and Morgan again failed to gather the requisite 5 yards for a first down, so tried the field goal again, with the same result. After a forgettable run by Hudgins, the Farmers were called for being offsides, giving Richmond 5 free yards, within 10 yards from the A&M goal. Richmond had a third field goal blocked and recovered, after which point the Red and White were called a second time for being offsides, bringing the Virginians to within 4 yards of the Raleigh boys' goal. On his fourth and final try, Morgan finally scored a goal, bringing the score to be 30-5 with just 1-1/2 minutes of play left.

The Red and White kicked off for just the second time that day, with Roberson sending the ball 33-45 yards; Richmond returned the kick for 15-18 yards. After a 3-4 yard run by Spilman and a run for no gain by Powell, the game was over with the ball about 20 yards from Richmond's goal line.

For the Farmers, the stars of the game were obvious: papers listed Darden, Tucker, Gulley, Welch, and Roberson. For Richmond, the News and Observer said that Lankford, Spilman, Hudgins, and Rowe "played good ball," while The Morning Post replaced Hudgins and Rowe with Gilliam and Spilman (News and Observer, November 28th, 1902, p. 3; The (Raleigh) Morning Post, November 28th, 1902, p. 5).