The third leg of Habersham Central’s ironman triathlon comes Friday night, when Lanier comes to town for another big Region 8-6A game.
Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. at Raider Stadium.
The Raiders (3-4, 1-2) have faced two juggernauts in a row in Buford and Dacula, and now another challenge faces them as they strive to reach the playoffs.
“Lanier’s a good football team with a lot of good athletes,” Raiders coach Benji Harrison said. “But our kids are upbeat. We’ve had a great week of practice, and we are excited about what we’re capable of. We have played Lanier tough in the past, and we are going to have to play our best to win the game. But I think if we do, we will have an opportunity to win it in the fourth quarter.”
Lanier (4-1, 1-1) also was defeated by Dacula, 28-27, on Oct. 9.
The Raiders have run a brutal gauntlet but still have a chance to make the postseason with two wins in their last three games.
“It was sort of the luck of the draw if you will to play these three in a row, but you have to play them sometime, so it doesn’t matter,” Harrison said. “We have some good things from the last two games that we can build off of. We didn’t win those games, but there were points at which we played our best and we were competing with those teams. This is a resilient team and we have been able to identify what we can improve on and put in the work to do it.”
Harrison said he wants to see his defense shore up some lanes heading into the matchup with the Longhorns.
“We need to be more gap sound, we’ve put a big emphasis on that,” Harrison said.
“You might get away with that against a team with less talent than some of the ones we have been facing, but not against these guys.”
Harrison stressed the need to run the ball and sustain drives.
“We have to be able to stay on schedule and not get behind the sticks,” Harrison said.