By Landen Todd
On a Friday stormy evening, the Habersham Central High School football team took down the Indians 27-3 at Raider Stadium. This is the first win for the Raiders against their big rival since 2019.
After an hour-long storm delay, the Raiders started out on defense and made a stop to lead Stephens to score a 30 yard field goal; the defense did not allow another point for the rest of the game.
In the second quarter, Habersham was knocking at the door, but junior quarterback Paris Wilbanks threw an incompletion in the endzone. That did not matter because the offense got the ball right back after a fumble recovery by junior Sutton Porter on defense.
Wilbanks connected with junior wide receiver Jay Feltus for a 22-yard touchdown. After that the defense was not on the field for very long with an interception by junior Parks York that set up Wilbanks for a 11-yard rushing touchdown.
Habersham went into the half up 13-3 on the Indians.
The third quarter was quiet for both offenses not being able to get anything going. The Raiders did get in the red zone, but Wilbanks' throw was tipped for an interception.
In the fourth quarter, the Raider defense made two big stops for turnovers on downs. Wilbanks made up for his interception by running in for a touchdown on the goalline to make the game 19-3.
Senior running back Donnie Warren put the nail in the coffin by rushing for a 50-yard touchdown. Warren had a big night rushing for 193 yards and a touchdown.
“Special is the word that comes to mind,” Head Coach Benji Harrison said. “It's just special for our players, for our community. We've knocked on that door so many times the last few years, and we were able to finish. That's what we talked about all week. Look, I thought we were the better football team going in, but I said, can we finish? Because I think there were a lot of people on their side that thought we couldn't finish. So we did, and I'm just really proud of our guys. Obviously, this is the season's just getting going. I felt like for this season to be what we want it to be, this one had to go our way.”
Read more in the Aug. 20 edition of The Northeast Georgian.