The rumblings started almost immediately after Madison County fell in the first round of the Region B playoffs to eventual Group A Division champion Altavitsa — the class of 2010 was too talented for the class of 2011 to match. For months the Mountaineers heard it.
“There was doubt,” said senior Ralph Yates. “Logan Terrell is gone, people like that left so that people thought we weren’t going to be anything. From (the end of) the season last year until this year, all we heard was that we weren’t going to do anything. We’ve taken that and used it.”
Before the season began, Madison coach Stuart Dean felt that underappreciated attitude would pay big dividends. He was right, and on Friday’s senior night the Mountaineers assured themselves of a playoff spot, potentially at home, on top of a share of the Bull Run District title, as they bounced back from an ugly stretch between the first and second quarters to top Manassas Park, 38-27.
“It’s actually worked in our favor,” said Dean of his team’s mindset. “They’ve had to hear (that talk) all year and had a little chip on their shoulder. Now they’re coming out and proving (themselves) where it needs to be proved, and that’s on the field.”
The two teams scored 56 points in the first half split evenly between the two on countless big plays, but as much offense as there was, arguably the two biggest plays in the game came from Madison’s defense.
With the Mountaineers up six early in the fourth quarter, the Cougars were set up with first and goal at the 4-yard line. After three straight stuffs, Madison mustered a fourth stop with the ball at the on 1-yard line as Bradley Meadows met bruising running back John Byrd halfway between where the ball was snapped and the endzone.
After the stop Madison drove down the field and Stephen Dixon made good on a 26-yard field goal to increase his team’s lead to nine points.
With more than four minutes and all three timeouts to work with, Manassas Park set out to score its first points of the second half, and appeared to have a good start when Tyree Durr caught a deep pass from quarterback Nick Kolb. But moments after the two connected Madison’s Rashad Bolden destroyed Durr, freeing the ball in the process. And not surprisingly, Meadows was in on the scene shortly to recover the fumble.
“Rashad Bolden layed a good hit, stuck ‘em, and the ball just popped out,” Meadows said. “I was like ‘Game! It’s our’s!’ I just dove on it.”
Two first downs later on the legs of Yates, the game was Madison’s, but while it was all smiles for the Mountaineers in the fourth quarter, a sequence between the first and second quarter had them on the ropes.
Madison started the game with a 14-0 lead as it scored on the first two drives of the night, capping its first series with an 8-yard touchdown pass from sophomore Dustin Farmer to Travis Warren and the second with a 3-yard run from Yates.
But over the next seven minutes, the Cougars peeled off 21 unanswered points to take a 21-14 lead, all three on rushing touchdowns from Byrd. An 80-yard kickoff return set up Byrd’s first score, an 11-yard run near the end of the first quarter. Then after a blocked punt, Byrd punched in a 7-yarder to tie the game up. Four minutes later, after a Madison fumble, Byrd gave his team the lead on a 20-yard run.
After the Mountaineers tied the game back up on a short Yates run, Byrd did the same to re-establish a 7-point distance, but that was all the scoring that Manassas Park could muster.
“I think everyone settled down,” Dean said. “But for them, (Byrd) ran all over us in the first half and I think he got a little tired in the second.”
In a two-minute drill before halftime, Farmer worked the ball downfield to Warren and Bolden. The quarterback deadlocked the contest at 28 with 41 seconds to play until the break on a 5-yard strike to Warren. Farmer came out with a hot hand in the third quarter as he hit Warren on a 66-yard bomb to score the only points of the frame and give Madison its 6-point lead heading into the fourth.
While Byrd finished with an impressive 208 yards and four scores on 26 attempts, Yates was every bit as impressive, fielding a 21-carry, 218-yard performance with two touchdowns. Farmer was 13 for 20 passing for 216 yards and three touchdowns. All 216 of those yards were split between Warren and Bolden as the Cougars secondary could not cover either receiver with any consistency.
“It was perfect passes, perfect calls,” Warren said. “Dustin just put it right there and we worked hard and we’ve worked all season for this. It’s a great feeling.”
Warren, who only played mid-way through the third quarter before banging up his ankle, finished with 153 yards and hauled in three touchdowns. Bolden had five receptions for 67 yards.
While the Cougars fumbled three times, only the fourth quarter slip up went the Mountaineers way. While Madison’s fumble resulted in seven points for its opponent, when the Mountaineers finally earned their turnover, it resulted in the win.
By virtue of Manassas Park’s win over Clarke County last week, Madison earned at least a share of the Bull Run District title, something that the Eagles held sole possession of for three years until now.
Madison (8-1) will get a chance to make the title its own when it heads to Clarke on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
