FERRIDAY — Winless Adams County Christian is getting used to defeat.

The Rebels fell 49-20 to Riverfield Academy in Rayville, La., but recorded their second-highest score of the season.

“Offensively, we did better as far as turnovers were concerned,” said coach Paul Hayles. “We had a few late, but we didn’t turn the ball over early. We just didn’t get the first downs in succession that we needed.”

Brandon Sanders recorded a 65-yard touchdown run in the second quarter for the Rebels’ first score, and Bryce Murray returned a kickoff 90 yards for six points.

“Bryce Murray, over the last couple weeks, has truly shined in kickoff returns,” Hayles said. “He took one 80-plus yards for a touchdown, and he was just an arm-tackle away — I mean just a hand — from making it two. The effort is there, we just have yet to get over the top.”

Despite the impressive runs, the Raiders led by 22 points at halftime, thanks in part to four touchdown runs by Brad Rogers.

Hayles said his defense was able to play with the Raiders but could not complete great stops.

“On the opening drive we had them at fourth-and-goal from the 22, but we let a broken play score. Four times we held them to fourth-down-and-2 or greater, and they were still able to get first downs,” he said. “So we were stepping up, but we weren’t completing the plays.”

The Parklane Academy Pioneers visit on Friday, and even though they lost 49-0 on Friday, Hayles is not optimistic.

“They lost to arguably the best team in state in MPSA in Jackson Prep,” he said. “They made a lot of mistakes that I don’t see them repeating. We’ve seen them in passing camps and they are an excellent football team. They spread you out, and they can power run it or they can finesse it past you.”

After a 40-14 win on the road at Franklin Academy, Huntington coach Chad Harkins is pleased with the progress his team has made.

From the first couple of games, when the Hounds were 1-2 and he had to work hard with his offensive line and running backs on their assignments and blocking to now, where Huntington has won three-straight, Harkins has seen much improvement.

“We did a lot better as far as being more prepared mentally for this game,” Harkins said of the win. “They came out and had some early checks put in for the defense. They lined up right, and I finally saw them do all the little things right in this game for first time this season real consistently.”

Jeremy Randall and Josh Lee both had 100-plus rushing games for the MPSA Class 3-6A No. 3 Hounds (4-2), who led 26-0 in the first half.

Randall rushed for 138 yards on 18 carries and Lee passed for 60 more, mostly to Tyler Peré, who had four catches for 51 yards.

Huntington will host Riverdale Academy on Friday, the first home game for the Hounds since Aug. 29, and Harkins said he hopes his team will continue to improve.

“(Riverdale) throws the ball about 30 times per game. About 75 percent of the game the ball will be in the air,” Harkins said. “So this will be a big shot on our defensive backs. There will be a lot of work this week on pass coverage most definitely.”

Trinity also showed marked improvement on Friday, although the progress was not from practice to the game. Instead, the Saints showed themselves as two different teams in the two halves of the game.

Trinity (6-0) was tied 21-21 with Briarfield at halftime before putting up 40 points in the next two quarters, allowing only 7.

The Saints used mostly passes in the first half to stay with the Rebels, but their ground game overpowered Briarfield in the second half, thanks to Kent King, who rushed for 166 yards on 13 carries with two touchdowns, and R.J. Fleming, who ran eight times for 161 yards and scored three times in the third quarter.

Coach David King said the halftime score was a wakeup call for his team, who had previously coasted to a 5-0 record.

Quarterback Givonni Dent went 8-for-11 with two touchdown passes in the first half to add to the Saints’ 580 total yards of offense.

Trinity now hosts Tallulah in its homecoming game on Friday. The Trojans are 3-2 following a 34-12 win over Wilkinson County Christian on Friday.

WCCA is still reeling from its 34-12 loss to Tallulah.

The Rams gave up 311 yards rushing to the Trojans, and their best rusher, Tip McKenzie, was held to just 29 yards on nine carries.

“We knew where they were going with the ball, we just didn’t get job done up front,” said WCCA coach Sam Byrd. “They had good lead blockers who really did their jobs, and they were able to get the yards they needed.”

Todd Gonda again did the scoring for the Rams, with 37- and 33-yard field goals and a three-yard run for a score.

Byrd said most of his team’s rushing struggles were caused by their own problems.

“We made a lot of mistakes. We really just hurt ourselves. We had several runs called back on penalties,” he said. “We had first-and-goal one time, and it basically became first-and-50 based mostly off of holding calls and penalties, mistakes we were making mentally.”

So the Rams will work on clean play and keeping their hands in this week in preparation for the Christian Home Educators Fellowship (CHEF).

Byrd said although the Patriots are a young team, they move the ball well with speedy backs.

“Execution of our plays and our blocking schemes — if we do that, we will be alright,” he said.

Centreville took a 30-point win over Bowling Green, thanks to four intercepted passes and a 23-carry, 158-yard rushing game from Zack Sinclair.

They take on Silliman Institute on Friday.