It was not just a stiff North to South wind that was flying through the Judson ISD stadium Friday night. The Mavs got flying around but not until the yellow hankies stopped. Madison a decisive favorite in the District 26-5A opener against the first year of Varsity Wagner Thunderbirds, would use this game as somewhat of a scrimmage. The Mavs would run in different squads of linemen and combinations of backs all game, giving some of the younger guys a chance to line up against the Wagner first teamers gaining some much needed experience.
By alternating different sets of linemen and backs the Mavs opened themselves up to some early and costly mistakes. Madison feature Back Devin Thomas carried the ball officially 17 times and picked up 177 yards and 3 TDs in the contest, but what you wont see in the box score is the two amazing TD runs called back due to penalties. Add in just those two runs and Thomas would have finished with 300+ yards and 5 TDs.
The way the game started was almost a foreshadowing of how the rest of the night would go. Wagner would try to pooch kick off twice with both attempts going out of bounds with the stiff wind blowing at the T-Birds backs. After the penalties and on the third attempt the T-Birds made a mistake of another kind. They kicked deep. Madison has made a living out of special team run backs for TDs and most teams in the area have learned their lesson. Names like Arline, Guiterez, G. Green, T. Green, Caflisch, and Guy have all punished special teams coaches in the area for years. You can now add the name Josh Miles. Miles recovered the kick around the 12 yard line faked the reverse to fellow speedster WR Chris Powell and raced up the T-Birds sideline for the early score.
Madison would go a full quarter before scoring again and not after a scarry moment late in the first quarter when T-Birds DB J. Hickman-Darrington suffered a leg injury that stoped the game for over 30 minutes while Wagner and Madison Trainers attended to the injured player before calling in the parametics to stabilze the young man and take him to a local hospital. The Madison Booster Club and jamesmadisonsports.com send out our thoughts and prayers to this young man and his family.
Penalties would kill several drives for Madison in the first quarter and the defense was giving up some nice size chunks of yardage to the T-Birds feature back Malcolm Cooper before Madison would settle down and start playing like the Mavs we are accustomed too. The Second half would be dominated by Madison, with the T-Birds punter getting quite a work out. Cooper would rack up 166 yards in the contest against a Maverick defense that had only given up 100 yards total combined in the first two games.
As time expired Madison would walk away with a sloppy 35-3 drumming of Wagner welcoming the new neighbor to 26-5A play. Madison gained some valuable experience for some younger players in the contest and that should go along way later in the season. Madison keeps it’s record unblemished going to 3-0 and 1-0 in district 26-5A. Madison defense continues to impress as they have given up just one TD on the year and are currently one of the top units in the area. With a scoring machine and talented Lee squad on the horizon the Mavs have their work cut out for them.
Go Mavs!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment