For years, Madison Academy dominated its football series with Randolph, rolling up a 13-0 advantage. Not counting a 1-0 Randolph forfeit in 2020, the Mustangs outscored the Raiders 361-94.

Finally, last season Randolph broke the long slide with 46-33 win at home.

The teams meet for the 15th time on Friday at 7 p.m. at Madison Academy’s Bill Washington Stadium.

With just 15 games over the 50 years since Randolph first fielded a team – and lost 19-8 to Madison Academy – and the Mustangs’ big advantage in victories and points differential, is this series really a rivalry?

“I think the rivalry has always been there,” Madison Academy head coach Bob Godsey said. “It’s a ready-made rivalry between two private schools in Huntsville. I think the rivalry is always there among all the [Huntsville] private schools. It’s a natural, good rivalry for both schools.

“I like rivalry games. I’ve been a part of a lot of good rivalry schools in my career. I’ve been blessed with that,” said the 21-year veteran coach, who spent his first 16 years rolling up a 141-51 record with a state crown at Hartselle.

David Lloyd, now 25-12 in his fourth season as the head coach at Randolph, also praised the rivalry. “It’s good to have that rivalry with the private schools,” he said. “It’s been really good the past few years when all of us had pretty good football teams. It makes for some pretty intense games. You want to play tough football and give your best effort every week.”

Neither coach said Randolph’s historic win last season would have any effect on the rivalry going forward.

“That was last year,” Lloyd said. “It was great to get that win last year, but really it just got us ready for region play. it doesn’t help us this year. We’re a new team with new goals, new players and a new way of doing things. That win was great and we can look back and talk about it with former players and current coaches. It won’t mean anything when we take the field against MA this week.”

Godsey said this year’s Madison Academy team is a bit like Randolph’s was last season. “Obviously, they are not as experienced as they were last year. They had a lot of guys last year who had played a lot of football and they were really good. It’s kind of swapped up this year. We were really young and inexperienced. The roles are a little reversed, but what that means as far as outcome, I’ve got no idea.”

Sixth-ranked Class 3A Madison Academy opened the year with a 42-6 rout of 4A Deshler on the road last week. Junior running back Ken Cherry rolled up 221 yards and scored three touchdowns in the win. “He’s played a lot of ball for us,” Godsey said. “He’s had to overcome some things in terms of injuries. He shows up and works every day.

“We have a core group of seniors with Reese Baker and Brock Horton up front [on the offensive line] who have played a lot of games for us. They do an excellent job leading, especially the linemen. They are out front and demand a lot of their teammates.

“A.J. Rice [a 6-foot-2, 232-pound junior linebacker/tight end] also shows up and works every day. When you have guys like that, it doesn’t leave much choice for the others,” Godsey said.

“We’ve got a really outstanding group that enjoys being around each other and enjoy working with each other. We look forward to a fun season – not necessarily by how many games we win, but in that they enjoy working hard and playing hard.”

Class 4A Region 8 Randolph opened with a 41-20 home loss to 4A Region 7 West Morgan.

“West Morgan was as good as we thought they were. I think they are a top 10 team,” Lloyd said. The Rebels were unranked in the preseason, but moved into the Alabama Sports Writers Association poll this week at No. 10.

“They have a ton of weapons back from last year. We knew coming in that our first two weeks we’d play high-quality football teams. That’s why we schedule them. If we’re going to get better, we have to play good football teams.”

The Raiders lost first-team All-State quarterback Andrew Hunter to Berry College and second-team running back Nic Strong to UNA. Second-team All-State wide receiver Grayson Davenport also graduated.

“William Mitchell has done a phenomenal job at quarterback,” Lloyd said. “He rushed for 77 yards and two touchdowns and threw for 190 yards and a touchdown last week. He threw two interceptions, but he’s a young guy [a 6-1, 170-pound junior] trying to make plays. One thing we have to work on is limiting turnovers, but you can’t fault him for trying to make some plays.”

Senior linebackers William Collins (5-8, 180) and Daniel Martin (5-8, 175) led the defense last week, recording 10 and eight tackles respectively.

“William is also playing his first year at running back for us,” Lloyd said. “He had a combined 90 yards from scrimmage with four catches for 60 yards. He’s been our starting guard for three years and now he’s one of our running backs. It was a really good night for him.

“Graham Batey did a phenomenal job for us from the safety spot. He had seven tackles and ran the backfield hard.”

Roan Campbell, a 6-0, 170-pound senior wide receiver caught two passes – one for a 45-yard touchdown.

Lloyd said the Raiders had 12 penalties for 120 yards in the loss. “Our effort was great, but we had a lot of penalties that hurt us,” he said. “We’ve got some young offensive linemen and had a lot of holding calls. It seemed that some of those holding calls came at the worst time. We’d get a 9- or 10-yard run and it comes back. We had a screen pass that we had go for a little bit, and it comes back.

“We’ve got some talent, but we need to get those game reps. They have to grow up pretty fast. We saw some really good things and saw some things we knew we would have to clean up. We want to watch them come into their own and see them become as good as I think they can be.”