Walton Hammers Alpharetta

Raiders appear headed for another title
By MICHAEL ALPERT / www.ajc.com

Alpharetta couldn’t slow Walton’s Michael Boydston Friday night as the Raiders continued to march toward a second consecutive Region 6-AAAAA championship.

The senior running back rushed for three touchdowns and a season-high 335 yards as Walton, a state semifinalist last season, dominated host Alpharetta 42-14 and remained unbeaten (5-0, 4-0) atop the region. Boydston, who had 301 yards and a season-high five touchdowns in a 42-28 region victory over Campbell two weeks ago, enters the second half of the season with 1,054 yards and 14 touchdowns.

“We’ve got a nice little offensive balance of running and throwing,” Walton coach Ed Dudley said of Boydston’s running, combined with quarterback Ray Rayburn’s nearly 700 yards passing. “Michael’s been running really well.”

Boydston had 137 yards and two touchdowns by halftime against Alpharetta (3-2, 2-2). He capped a 13-play drive with a 3-yard touchdown run, then punctuated a three-play drive with a 26-yard run up the middle to put the Raiders up 14-0 by the break. On the second play of the third quarter, he rambled 64 yards to put the game out of reach, 21-0.

Alpharetta drew within 21-7 on Justin Burns’ 39-yard scoring pass to Jordan Owens, but Walton padded its advantage with touchdown runs by Rayburn and Kyle Vorster and Rayburn’s scoring pass to Patrick Barnette. Alpharetta’s final score came on Mikal Abdul-Saboor’s 54 yard scoring pass to Brenton Godwin.

The start is Walton’s best since 2003, when the Raiders went 11-0 before losing in the second round of the playoffs to Cherokee.

“We felt like we had to be at least 3-2 or 4-1 by this point to be in contention [for the region championship],” Dudley said.

Alpharetta coach Bill Waters, whose team was 3-0 before consecutive losses to Milton and Walton, warned before the game of Walton’s scoring ability. Walton takes an average of 30 points per game into its sixth game against Milton on Oct. 10.

“They’re going to put some points on the board; they’ve been doing it every week,” Waters had said.