William Monroe is still kind-of-sort-of shaking off the cobwebs from two weeks ago where it looked certain that they would hold serve against Strasburg and didn’t. But as coach Jon Rocha pointed out after his team’s 50-12 win over Madison County to give the Dragons two straight wins — some losses are a good thing. He might be on to something.
“I’ve got a (state title) ring that says 13-1,” Rocha said. “(Playing back then) we beat a Central Lunenburg team that was 83-0 going into that game and Madison came out the next week and beat us 35-0 the next week. We needed that loss (when I was playing) and I think we needed the Strasburg loss (this season).”
Since that loss, Monroe’s been dominant. The Dragons dominated Central Woodstock last week at home, and this week they scored on the first play from scrimmage against Madison. While the Mountaineers looked poised to make it a midway through the second quarter, a special teams play from Monroe took the wind out of Madison’s sails and the second half belonged to the visitors.
“No one is going to quit (playing hard against us),” Rocha said. “Our kids have accepted that these last two week and they’ve said ‘We’re going to play from start to finish, Coach.’ They’re maturing so fast and so quick. But the hardest thing I’ve found as the head coach is keeping them level.”
Coming off his 207-yard showing last week, Cody Perkins started the game off on the right with a 57-yard touchdown run.
“That got the momentum going for us, it set the tone I think,” Perkins said.
The Dragons scored again to make it 14-0 on their next drive with Perkins and Tylek Burley marching down field and Perkins finding the endzone from a yard out.
Things slowed down from there. For starters, Madison was able to move the ball more effectively, but the Mountaineers defense also showed some resolve. Just inside the redzone midway through the second quarter, senior quarterback James Graves hit Dre Twyman for a 24-yard touchdown pass to make it 14-6. But that would be as close as Madison could get.
“We had some opportunities early on, but we never really won the line of scrimmage and that made things tough,” said Madison coach Stuart Dean. “The first quarter we were out of sync but in the second quarter we were much better on both sides.”
The ensuing kickoff went to Khalil Green and his 79-yard touchdown return put the Dragons up 21-6.
“That gets the kids hyped,” Rocha said. “Then you’ve got all three-facets going and it just snowballs.”
Then after the Mountaineers failed on a fourth down conversion, Dustin Knight took a quarterback draw 62 yards after a couple of shifty moves in the middle of the field to put it at 28-6 going into the break.
The third quarter belonged to Monroe. Perkins added another 1-yard TD in that frame and Malique Shackleford, he came in for Dustin Knight at quarterback, made it 42-6 after his 38-yard rushing touchdown.
“I think we were just more physical tonight,” Perkins said. “Our seniors, it feels like we finally get it, that we’re coming together as a team. I think that’s been the biggest key for us right now.”
The Mountaineers responded with a 64-yard pass from Graves to Twyman to cut it to 42-12. Monroe answered with a 1-yard Greg Sizemore rushing touchdown. The Dragons converted the 2-point convert to pump it up to 50-12 and end all scoring.
On the night, Perkins finished with 141 yards on 10 carries and three touchdowns. Shackleford had six touches for 105 yards.
For Madison, Graves finished with 210 yards passing and in the process, set the school record for career passing yards. Twyman had 99 yards and two touchdowns receiver. Isaiah Smith added 99 yards on eight receptions. The Mountaineers were without senior leader on both the offensive and defensive line, Dylan Berry. He is out for the rest of the season after he broke his jaw in a car accident last weekend, making the result and the week leading up to this, particularly tough.
“It’s been a rough week,” Dean said. “When you lose a player like that, one that’s been around as long as he has it’s just rough. He’s a captain and leader. We missed him tonight.”
Monroe (4-3) plays at home against George Mason while Madison (2-5) hosts Strasburg.
