MACON — Mount de Sales struck early, often and quick.

After falling behind 7-0 to the Southland Raiders, the Cavaliers scored 36 straight en route to a 50-14 win Friday night.

Chris Swain rushed for 170 yards to lead MdS as he had more rushing yards than the entire Raider offense.

“They whooped over us pretty good,” said coach Tim Goodin. “We moved the ball a little bit against them — pretty much all night — but we just couldn’t stop them. We didn’t tackle well in the open field, and they get a lot of credit for that. They have a lot of athletes who run well in the open field.”

Southland had one big offensive play, and it was the first one of the game. Wes Downs hit Anthony Dunning on a halfback pass for 41 yards to the MdS 12, setting up a Kevin Greene 7-yard touchdown run.

MdS, however, scored the first five times it touched the ball with the drives consisting of 3, 6, 3 and 5 plays, not including a 63-yard punt return for a score by Josh Abrams.

Goodin said getting behind early changed the game plan in a hurry.

“They have more speed probably than anybody else (in the GISA) and more size,” he said. “They have some weaknesses. We felt like we could have scored maybe 30 on them. If they hadn’t scored as much, I think we would have. We tried to run wide and throw more because we got down so quick. We onside kicked a couple of times, and that gave them good field position.”

Ahead 21-7, MdS quarterback Bradley Smith found Brandon Sartin and Abrams for a pair of touchdowns on plays of 56 and 24 yards.

“They were such a threat to throw; we had to cover the pass the whole night,” said Goodin. “They blocked us well in the secondary. Their big running back (Swain) had ran some inside; they wouldn’t have beaten us just running inside. They ran wide, and they ran a kickoff and punt back for long gains. All night they big-played us to death, and we didn’t tackle well in the open field.”

The Raiders had four penalties in the game, including two on the final drive of the first half. They failed to score before the half ended, and Goodin said not scoring was a difference maker.

“We would have had some momentum and something to build on from last year’s game with them,” he said, referring to last year’s game when Southland rallied from a 27-7 deficit to win 28-27. “I think if we would have scored right there and had been 14 down, I’m not saying we would have won, but it would be a different game.”

Southland had 231 yards of offense compared with 353 for MdS. Collin Holloway had 52 yards rushing, and Greene scored both Southland touchdowns.

Luke Alexander and Lawton Williams led the Raider defense with 12 and 11 tackles, respectively.

It’s the first time since 2000 that MdS has won its first two games to start a season. Despite scoring 84 points in the first two games, Goodin isn’t quick to tag them as the GISA favorites.

“They definitely have the best open field athletes that I’ve seen in the GISA,” he said. “I don’t think they’re going to win a state championship, but they have a good enough team. They have some great athletes and have a chance to win a state championship. I don’t know who is good in the GISA, but the Deerfields and Tattnalls and some of those guys will tackle them better on defense than we did.

“We’re young and have got to grow up. It shows on defense. We didn’t have the skilled people to match up with them.”