A year ago, Madison County traveled to Luray early in the season and had no answer for the Bulldogs’ bruising rushing attack in a 56-6 loss.
Fast forward to 2018: The site was different and the score was much closer, but a spirited comeback by the improved Mountaineers fell just short in Friday night’s season opener.
Luray got 186 yards on 28 carries from Tim Trudell, 155 on 16 carries from Austin Holloway and 109 yards and three touchdowns on 12 touches from Dylan Atkins. That productivity and ability to move the chains helped them hold off a furious rally to escape Madison with a 30-28 win.
The Bulldogs overcame a Herculean effort from Mountaineer senior quarterback Elijah Lewis, who threw four touchdowns and nearly brought Madison back from double-digit deficits in both halves.
The clash, however, didn’t start well for Madison.
After losing a fumble in the red zone on its first drive, the Bulldogs drew first blood on a five-yard run by Dylan Atkins with 1:55 to go in the first quarter. The touchdown capped a 14-play, 72-yard drive in which Luray wore down the Mountaineers in the trenches.
“It was a big key because we controlled the ball and that kept their offense off the field,” Luray coach Nolan Jeffries said. “They’re really strong with their weapons on offense, especially at quarterback. They have really good athletes.”
Atkins repeated the feat midway through the second quarter with another five-yard plunge following a similar clock-churning drive following a Madison punt. Luray went all the way from its own eight in just over five minutes, and aided by a trio of Madison penalties, took a 14-0 lead with 5:17 before halftime.
“They chewed up a lot of clock,” Madison coach Chandler Rhoads said. “They’re a very physical team, a very tough team. I think in either the second or third quarter we only got the ball once.”
Trudell went in from six yards out just before halftime and despite blocking the extra point, Madison seemed destined to go into the locker room trailing 20-0.
But then the offense woke up.
Lewis completed three straight passes on the ensuing drive, the last one to Khalid West from five yards out to finally put the Mountaineers on the board.
With 11 seconds remaining, Luray mishandled the ensuing kickoff and Madison recovered at the Bulldogs’ 23. With one play remaining in the half, Lewis hit Michael Carpenter in the front left corner of the end zone to cut the deficit to a touchdown.
Luray took the second-half kick and rumbled down the field again. But this time Madison’s defense stiffened in the red zone, holding the Bulldogs to a 27-yard field goal off the foot of Jordan Windle to make it 23-13.
Windle misfired on a 37-yarder with 11:43 left in the fourth, leaving the door open for the Mountaineers. Twice on the drive the Bulldogs had touchdown runs erased by penalties, including a chop-block on what would have been Atkins’ third touchdown of the game.
But the Luray defense forced a quick three-and-out, finally figuring Lewis out and Atkins quickly got his third score after a drive of six plays and 2:16 covering 54 yards to make it 30-13 with 7:17 remaining.
“It’s good to have some resiliency, but it shows some things we need to work on,” Jeffries said. “I thought we had opportunities to go up 28-0. We need to clean up–we failed to maximize on our opportunities.
However, the Mountaineers made it interesting once again.
Lewis, who finished 12-for-18 for 158 yards, gave Madison one more burst of momentum when he hit running back Matthew Lewis for a 42-yard touchdown with five minutes remaining. A successful two-point conversion brought the Mountaineers within nine, then on the first play of Luray’s ensuing drive, William Graves recovered a Trudell fumble to familiarly set the Mountaineers up on the Bulldog 23.
“We had some guys play the way seniors are supposed to play,” Madison coach Chandler Rhoads said. “Elijah played really well. He was a leader. He handled himself well. I’m proud of his effort.”
It required a little more work, but Lewis eventually found Chase Estes from nine yards out to make it a two-point game with just under four minutes to go. Unfortunately, his offense never got the ball back as Trudell, Atkins and Holloway all ran for first downs on the ensuing drive to run out the clock.
The Mountaineers travel to East Rockingham next Friday night, while Luray will play Strasburg.
