“It was a complete game. You’re never going to have a perfect one, but it was as close to complete as I thought we could play.”
The words of Habersham Central Head Coach Benji Harrison sum up Friday night’s 41-0 blowout win over Loganville to open the region schedule for both teams.
The Raiders (3-2, 1-0 Region 8-AAAAA) converted all four chances in the red zone, scoring touchdowns in each trip, and held the Red Devils (0-5, 0-1) to 120 yards of total offense.
The lopsided victory comes before a bye week and after a weather-shortened loss to a non-region opponent on the road.
Harrison said he thinks his team needed a win like this for a few reasons. The top of the list is starting 1-0 in region play. After that, it’s the confidence it instills on both sides of the ball to know that, if they play their game, they’re a tough out.
“I told our offense, even in games where we’ve played good offense, we didn’t score enough,” Harrison said. “We needed to have a night where the score matched how we performed. I think they did that.
“I think the defense can say, ‘If there’s a night where we need to shut them down, we can do that,’” he continued. “I think it was the best of both worlds. We needed it. We needed a good win.”
Quarterback Paris Wilbanks (5 rushes, 33 yards, 1 touchdown) got the night started with a 2-yard touchdown run around the right side just 3 minutes, 33 seconds into the contest.
The second quarter would be where Habersham Central would put itself considerably out of reach in this contest.
Two minutes, 11 seconds into the second period, running back Donnie Warren (14 rushes, 88 yards, 1 touchdown) found the end zone on a 9-yard run off the left side.
Exactly five minutes of game time later, Wilbanks found Drake Roland on a drag route across the middle of the field as he moved right to left. Almost immediately as Roland caught the ball, he was met with an attempted tackle from a Red Devil defender.
Roland rolled on top of the defender, never touching the turf with more than a hand. With a heads-up play, the junior kept his legs moving and sprinted to the end zone for a 38-yard touchdown reception.
Harrison said he expected receiver KJ Murray to be the targeted receiver on the play, but he was caught up in traffic in the middle of the field.
“Paris did a really good job of stepping up in the pocket and made a nice throw in traffic to Drake,” Harrison said. “Drake just made a really heads-up play realizing he didn’t go down. I thought he was down and I was getting ready to call the next play. Just a really great effort by Drake.”
The final score of the half came with just a minute, 5 seconds remaining before the break.
Wilbanks (8-of-13, 180 yards, 3 touchdowns) lobbed up a 20-yard strike to junior receiver Tay Spencer toward the right side of the end zone.
Spencer went up and high-pointed the ball over a defender for the touchdown catch, putting the Raiders up 28-0 at intermission.
Harrison said the best part of Spencer getting the scoring reception was fellow junior receiver Jay Feltus (3 catches, 61 yards) coming off the field on the play and looking at Harrison saying “get Tay a touchdown.”
“I think that’s pretty cool when you have guys wanting other guys to have success,” Harrison said.
The Raiders notched a fifth touchdown in the third quarter as senior receiver Tylon Davis (3 catches, 42 yards, 1 touchdown) took a screen pass 23-yards to the house, following blockers and carving up would-be tacklers along the way.
The final score would come with back-up quarterback Owen Gailey making the best of a busted play just under four minutes into the final period. As Gailey pulled a handoff as part of a zone read and looked for his receiver, the receiver had blocked down inside. That left Gailey one option and he busted toward the corner and dove into the right pylon on the front corner of the end zone.
Kicker Camden Meads was 5-for-6 on extra point attempts, missing his final chance of the night. He also had one punt on the night for 49 yards.
Harrison praised his kicker for his precision on kickoffs and helping his coverage team, which got scolded a bit from the coaching staff throughout the week, keep the Red Devils from getting great field position to start their drives.
“Special teams were good. Camden did a really nice job putting the ball where they needed to be,” Harrison said. “I think we probably got onto them as bad as anything on our kickoff team. Just reminding them that you get 18-25 snaps a game on special teams, so why thinks those don’t matter just as much as an offensive or defensive snap?”
The Raiders were visibly a different team Friday night compared to the way they came out last week on the road at Cherokee Bluff and in Week 2 against Flowery Branch.
“You’re only guaranteed 10 of these. It doesn’t matter who you play, where you play – you’re playing. The key word is ‘playing’ and ‘play’ to me indicates doing something to have fun,” Harrison said. ‘That was the challenge, just to have fun. The two games we’ve lost, it felt like we came out there very flat. That blows my mind.”
Playing for something bigger
Wednesday night and Thursday morning, many in the Habersham Central community got the news that they had lost one of their own. Landon Ramey tragically passed away on Sept. 10.
The rock in front of the high school was painted in support of his family as prayers and support poured in. The football program, which Ramey supported by creating highlight videos as a member of the audio/video program at Habersham Central, honored him prior to Friday’s game.
A photo of Ramey, along with the words “In loving memory of Landon Ramey, 2009-2025, Forever a Raider,” adorned the video scoreboard as a student addressed the attending crowd with a prayer. The players wore stickers on the backs of their helmets with Ramey’s name and his initials, “LR.” Many in the student section also wore the sticker.
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“It’s been a hard week. A very, very hard week,” Harrison said. “That was the message before we went out there: ‘I know some of you guys are hurting. I know this community is hurting. I know our school is hurting. So here’s what we’re going to do for the next three hours tonight – we’re going to try to bring a smile to our fans’ faces with how we play, with the energy we play with.’”
Next on the football calendar
Now the Raiders will turn to a bye week as they prepare for Winder-Barrow on Sept. 26.
Harrison said the bye week will be about getting guys healthy and limiting chances for further injury, while attempting to keep the same intensity and energy.
The matchup with the Bulldoggs from a year ago ended up with 100 points scored in a 57-43 loss for Habersham Central with both teams totaling just under 1,200 yards of offense.
Wilbanks, then a sophomore signal caller, set a school record with 466 passing yards.
But four lost fumbles and an interception sullied all chances of a win for the Raiders in the contest.
“I’d be happy to score that many, but I don’t want them to score that many,” Harrison said. “Our kids remember that game. Our kids want to try to play better. We need that win.”
Harrison said this team has adopted a new mantra of being “1-and-0.” That of course means being 1-0 each week with a win, but it also means winning the play in front of you. After you’re 1-0 on that play, you get back up and try to be 1-0 on the next one too.
“The goals are big for this team. We want to set ourselves up,” the head coach said. “I don’t like to talk about it too much because our new thing has been 1-0, but we want to compete for the region championship and, in order to do that, that one is big.”
Habersham Central will host Winder-Barrow with toe meeting leather at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 26 as the home crowd celebrates Homecoming at Raider Stadium.
