By Bryan Rothamel/FlucoBlog.com
PALMYRA — The only thing that could stop Ralph Yates was a brick wall, and that, clearly, wasn’t happening. The senior running back ignited Madison County in a 24-21 road win over Fluvanna County Friday night.
Madison County racked up 291 rushing yards on the night and Yates led all rushers with 148 yards and two touchdowns. Madison’s Maurice Gentry finished with 70 yards on the ground and scored the winning touchdown.
With Fluvanna holding a 21-17 lead, Madison twice brought the ball within 10 yards of the goal line with no luck. With just over eight minutes left, Gentry ran it in from 32 yards out to give Madison the final score.
“The biggest thing you saw tonight was our kids play for four quarters. We played our butts off for four quarters and came out with a victory. That’s all we can ask for,” said Madison County coach Stuart Dean
Things didn’t start off great for Madison though. The game was all Fluvanna early as the Flucos scored on their third and fourth drives. The Mountaineers managed 23 yards offensively until Yates carried two defenders during his 47 yard dash to make it 14-7 and things opened up a bit from there.
“The o-line had some crazy holes,” Yates said. “I mean, holes you could walk through. I just hit them hard and when [Fluvanna] came, I just kept my feet moving.”
Fluvanna’s TJ Dudley responded immediately after Yates. His 69-yard quarterback keeper with 6:17 left in the first half was Fluvanna’s last score.
“Madison made some really good adjustments in the second half. We tried running stuff that we are good at and they did a great job of taking that away. We had to go to our second and third and fourth best plays,” said Fluvanna’s interim head coach Jason Barnett.
Madison dug in, allowing only 41 yards after the final Dudley score. The ball stayed on the Fluvanna defensive side of the field for the rest of the game except for the final two plays.
“We had a couple of series where we had some bad things happen to us. We have to be a more complete team from quarter one to quarter four,” Barnett said.
Dudley led Fluvanna with 143 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Quin Stith had 35 rushing yards while Ben Markiewicz had 18.
Tonight was a completely different look from a Madison team that relied heavily on a passing attack in an exhibition against Orange last week.
“We want to do both. We don’t want somebody to just shut down the run then have to throw. We want to do both things, that’s what a good offense is going to do,” Dean said.
Madison will try to mix both running and passing as next week when they will host William Monroe. Fluvanna has the next week off before traveling to Buckingham on Sept. 17.
