It's never fun to lose, and it's even less fun to lose 48-13, which was the final score in the Shaw Raiders's tilt against the Athens Academy Spartans on Friday. The Raiders were in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 21-0.
Shaw lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Aryn Grant, who rushed for 85 yards on only 12 carries, and also threw for 93 yards and a touchdown. The dominant performance gave him a new career- in total yards. Another signal caller making a difference was Kingston Long, who picked up 97 receiving yards and a touchdown.
A big part of the victory came down to the chemistry between Hampton Johnson and his top target Keyon Standifer. Johnson threw for 336 yards and four touchdowns on only 18 passes while Standifer picked up 284 receiving yards and four touchdowns. Standifer's longest reception was for an impressive 63 yards, which helps to explain his lofty yards per catch total. Jamari Welch helped Johnson out on the ground, rushing for 164 yards on only 12 carries.
Shaw now has a losing record at 1-2. As for Athens Academy, the win was the third in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 3-0.
Shaw will have plenty of time to ponder what went wrong as they've got a bye scheduled next week. After, they'll take on Hardaway at 7:00 p.m. on September 12th. As for Athens Academy, they will head out on the road to take on John Milledge Academy at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. One thing working in Athens Academy's favor is that they have posted at least 31 points every time they've taken the field this season.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
