Eastside has played well on offense, defense and special teams throughout the season coming into Friday night's game at Madison County.

However, the Eagles haven't played well at all three phases in one game, before Friday night's 42-14 win over the Red Raiders.

It marked Eastside's first Region 8-AAAA win this season as the Eagles improved to 3-2 overall and 1-1 in the region heading into their upcoming bye week. Despite the upcoming week off, Eastside coach Rick Hurst doesn't feel the momentum his team picked up will be lost.

Eastside will use the week to continue to work on reducing penalties, improving on offense and defense and get healthy. Defensive players Anthony Henderson and Antonius Sims have both been out since a 32-0 win over Newton, and are working on a return against Lanier on Oct. 12.

The Eagles faired well without the two defensive players Friday, and were also boosted by the return of Marcus Griffeth, who served a suspension in a 57-56 loss to Chestatee on Sept. 21.
"He had a big game," Hurst said. "He played real well and responded real well."

Also coming up with a big game was Alex Smith, who sat out during a 24-10 loss against Eastside Sept. 14. Smith ran for a touchdown, caught a touchdown and returned a punt for another.

Demario Terrell also provided a lot of offensive firepower for the Eastside, throwing two touchdowns and rushing for another. Chase Chancey caught a touchdown and Landon Moore ran for another.

Eastside jumped on the Red Raiders (0-5, 0-2) early, gaining a 21-0 lead and continued to stifle the Madison offense until the final six minutes. Xavier Duncan scored on runs of 8 and 5 yards against Eastside's second team, but by then the game was already decided.

"I thought we played well in all three phases," Hurst said. "We had some penalties that I thought we need to correct on but overall I'm real pleased."

Hurst will continue to try and get Eastside working on its penalties, a problem he hasn't seen in practice but gets frustrated over in games.

"There's still something we have to correct," Hurst said. "Penalties are something we don't do in practice. We're getting behind the chains on first and second downs and it's something we have to eliminate. It's all a matter of concentration and listening to Demario and no one else."