It was a prolific night of football at Red Raider Stadium -- for the officials.
Madison County High School (2-4) couldn’t capitalize on 176 yards worth of penalties assessed to visiting Habersham Central (3-3) in a 28-7 loss Friday.
The team from Mt. Airy racked up 18 infractions in the flag-filled affair, but managed to shut out the struggling Red Raiders for the first three quarters in its third-straight win over MCHS.
Madison County’s state playoff hopes continue to dim as the Red Raiders dropped to 2-4 in the region with four games remaining. They're also in danger of suffering the program's first losing season since 1999. Madison County will look for its first win in a month Friday when it travels to face resurgent Loganville (4-1), which is just three points away from being unbeaten.
With the Red Raiders down 21-0, Stacy Mack managed MCHS’s only score against Habersham Central with a 12-yard touchdown at the 10:14 mark in the fourth quarter.
But it was too little, too late.
Madison County managed 171 total yards, but most of that came after the Red Raiders were already down by three touchdowns. The MCHS offense struggled for its third-straight game, converting just 3-of-13 third down opportunities and turning the ball over three times, though the last was a meaningless interception on the last play of the game.
Madison County’s first turnover – on its first possession of the game --- set up Habersham Central’s first score and the defending region champions never looked back.
Picking up a Red Raider fumble on Madison County’s 31, Habersham drove and got on the scoreboard with an eight-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Austin Brown. The Mt. Airy Raiders added a 75-yard touchdown strike from Brown to Zach Mayfield in the second quarter to go up 14-0. Then, tailback David Griffeth scored twice in the second half on touchdown runs of seven and two yards as Habersham Central left Danielsville with a convincing win.
Of course, the most eye-opening stat of the night was Habersham’s penalties. Habersham Central actually accrued more penalty yards (176) than Madison County managed total yards (171).
A huge chunk of that came late in the second quarter.
Habersham picked up a first down inside the Madison County 10, only to have it negated by a penalty. Habersham was then hit with three subsequent unsportsmanlike conduct fouls to force it into a rather rare 4th-and-65 situation.
Madison County committed six infractions in the game for a total of 24 flags on the night between the two teams.
Rushing: Mack 5-40-1TD; Owens 8-7; Johnson 2-2; Allen 4-1; Gunnells 1- -1
Passing: Owens 13-31, 117 yards, 0 TD 2 INT; Allen 1-1, 5 yards
Receiving: Allen 6-65; Turner 4-32; Baird 2-23, Owens 1-5; Mack 1- -3
