A good portion of this Madison County team has been waiting a long time for their chance. Players like Ralph Yates and Rashad Bolden spent last season a little further down the depth chart than they would have on a lot of teams, but did so because of there were so many playmaking seniors ahead of them. Madison has a bit of a different look in 2010, and on Thursday this team finally got an opportunity to line up against someone else as the Mountaineers scrimmaged Essex.
“It’s funny, these guys have been waiting behind those seniors, and today a lot of those seniors were here watching,” said Madison coach Stuart Dean. “They’re reward was to scrimmage the defending (Group A Division 1) champs who had 30 some players back from last year.”
It was relatively tough slugging for both the Madison and Essex offenses as the opposing defenses forced a fistful of turnovers.
Both Yates and Bolden came up with interceptions while sophomore defensive end Clifford Henry was able to force a pair of fumbles.
“I thought our (first team defense) was real strong, especially against a team that is so athletic,” Yates said. “I really think we played pretty well.”
Seeing the defense progress was exactly what Dean was hoping for as a handful of young players like Fortune showed they were ready to take the next step.
“I feel like we had a lot of guys answer some questions that we had at key spots,” Dean said.
Travis Warren, L.J. Ward and Dustin Farmer saw snaps under center but Ward was knocked out of the scrimmage with concussion-like symptoms after getting dinged up during Bolden’s interception return.
Late in the scrimmage the Mountaineer offense finally came to life when Farmer hit Bolden on a screen pass that the senior receiver was able to take past a barrage of Trojan defenders before heading off to the races for a 60-yard score.
“It’s our first scrimmage and it is just a scrimmage,” Dean said. “But it was nice to see things coming together there towards the end.”
For Dean’s players, the first scrimmage was a reminder of what the team needs to continue to work on. According to Bolden, getting better starts with this group learning to trust one another and figure each other out in game situations.
“We really need to work on our chemistry first and foremost,” Bolden said. “You’ve got to start there and then you can work on some of the other stuff.”
Madison travels to Orange County next Friday for the two school’s annual benefit game before opening the season on the road against Fluvanna County.
