Madison County’s defense stiffened when it really needed to and the Mountaineer offense woke up just in time to lead the Mountaineers to a 26-20 overtime victory over Warren County on Madison’s homecoming Friday night.
The Mountaineers faced a fourth-and-7 trailing 17-14 from the Warren County 40, needing a conversion to extend the game. They got it in the form of a 12-yard completion from Chris Smith to Isiah Smith.
“We’d been working on that play since August 1st,” Madison head coach Stuart Dean said.
Chris Smith then scrambled for another 13 yards to get Madison in the red zone, and three plays later, Isiah Smith gave Madison its first lead with 30 seconds to play on a one-yard dive. However, the Mountaineers fumbled the snap on the extra point, keeping the score 20-17.
The Wildcats made them pay, taking the ensuing kickoff to midfield and taking just two plays to get down to the Madison eight-yard line. There, Stuart Ashley nailed his second field goal of the game from 25 yards out to force overtime.
Madison won the toss and elected to go on defense first, a decision that proved fruitful when Matthew Lewis intercepted an R.J. Keeney pass in the end zone. Then, after Isiah Smith gained two yards on Madison’s first play in overtime, Chris Smith ended it with an eight-yard rush, sending the Mountaineer bench into a frenzy.
A Warren County offense that came in having not scored more than 16 points in a game this season nearly eclipsed that mark in the first half. The Wildcats struck first when Keeney linked up with Ben Vogt on a 37-yard catch-and-run on a slant route with 4:02 to go in the first quarter. Keeney got his second touchdown pass of the game when Brendan McMackin shrugged off several Madison tacklers on his way to an 11-yard touchdown catch to double the Wildcat lead to 14-0 with 8:48 left before halftime.
“That’s what happens when you have a bye week after a big win, you think you’ve got it made,” Dean said. “Warren County came out here and played hard from the get-go, and we had to get it back together. We did a great job responding in the second half.”
Madison’s offense, meanwhile struggled to get in gear. The Mountaineers best offensive scoring opportunity in the first half came when Chris Smith, who finished 12 for 26 with 167 yards, hit Isaiah Breckenridge for a 38-yard gain to set up the Mountaineers on the Wildcat two-yard line. But two plays later, Smith threw his first interception of the game in the end zone.
“We weren’t blocking well in the first half,” Smith said. “We had a talk about that at halftime and improved in the second half.”
Instead it was the Madison defense that got them on the board on Warren’s second play after the interception when Isiah Smith came up with a pick of his own–his second of the game–at the 35 and took it all the way to cut the Warren County lead in half. The score remained that way going into the break.
After halftime, the Mountaineers started like a house on fire, forcing three straight negative Warren County plays and forcing a punt. On the second play of the ensuing drive, Smith hit Breckenridge again and this time he made it all the way to the end zone to tie the game at 14-14.
After the teams exchanged punts, Keeney led the Wildcats on an eight-play drive that culminated in a 30-yard field goal by Ashley. That set the stage for the Chris and Isiah Smith’s heroics.
Madison will next travel to Riverside, a team it defeated with ease last season, next Friday night at 7:00. But last year’s result isn’t even on Dean’s radar.
“[My players] know they have to show up to practice on Monday ready to work,” Dean said. “They’ve already been told that.”
