Newspaper Page Text
The Madison County Journal
INSIDE THIS WEEK
Week 11 predictions are in
Check out the football picks for
week 11 of The Madison County
Journal Pigskin Picker
2B
IB
Thursday, November 12, 2009
www.MainstreetnewsSPORTS.com
Ben Munro/ ben@mainstreetnews.com (706) 795-2567
Madison County catcher Katie Bolin was
named the 8-AAAA co-Player of the Year.
Softball
Gibson, Bolin earn top honors
Eight MCHS softball
players tapped for all-region
By Ben Munro
ben@mainstreetnews.com
Eight players off Madison
County High School's 27-4 region
championship softball team have
earned all-region honors, led by
Erin Gibson who was selected
as 8-AAAA Pitcher of the Year,
and Katie Bolin, who was named
Co-Player of the Year.
"Oh, yeah, that was great, and to
have Erin Gibson and Katie Bolin
as pitcher and player of the year
... MCHS coach Doug Kesler
said. "All of them were deserving
of those honors."
Gibson (18-3, 1.31 ERA) set a
school record for victories this sea-
— See ‘Softball’ on page 2B
With 18 wins, Madison County’s Erin
Gibson was 8-AAAA’s Pitcher of the Year.
Sports Notes
Basketball
scrimmages are
this Friday
Madison County High School’s
annual intrasquad basketball
scrimmages are this Friday start
ing at 7 p.m.
Following scrimmage games
with Hart County on Nov. 17,
Madison County opens its sea
son at home against Southwest
Atlanta Christian.
MCMS hosts
wrestling meet
Madison County Middle
School will host a home meet
Nov. 17 to kickoff its 2009-2010
campaign.
The Mustangs will host
Stephens County and
Oglethorope County.
The team actually starts its sea
son Saturday, however, on the
road at the Oglethorpe County
tournament.
MCHS wrestling
season starts
next weekend
The Madison County High
School wrestling team opens its
season next Friday, Nov. 20, at
Cedar Shoals.
The Raider grapplers will fol
low that up with an appearance
in the Hart County tournament
the following Saturday.
JV Football
Jordan and
Burton connect
for TD, but
Gainesville rolls
Quarterback Alex Jordan
threw a 35-yard touchdown to
Trey Burton last Thursday, but
it wasn’t enough in the Madison
County junior
varsity football
team’s 22-7 sea
son-ending loss
to Gainesville.
Madison
County finished
the season 3-3-
1. Two of those
losses came by
just one point.
“The kids
played hard
every game,”
coach Marty
Tate said. “They
won some big
games during the season.”
Tate also pointed to next sea
son.
“This group of kids needs
to work hard in the weight
room during the off-season,”
he said. ‘A lot of this group
should be playing next season
on varsity.”
BURTON
Madison County’s Connor Boyette (no. 77) pressures Clarke Central quarterback Martay Mattox last week in Madison
County’s 31-13 loss to the Gladiators in Athens. Ben Munro/staff
No miracles
Marquis Thomas scoops a fumble and returns it 65 yards for a touchdown in
Madison County’s 31-13 loss to Clarke Central. Ben Munro/staff
Madison Co.’s hopes of
winning season, playoffs
dashed by Clarke Central
By Ben Munro
ben@mainstreetnews.com
ATHENS — Madison County needed
to win and have Loganville lose Friday to
parlay its a turnaround season into a state
playoff season.
Neither part of that equation worked
out.
As Loganville was beating Winder-
Barrow 57-18 Friday, Clarke Central
dashed Madison County's hopes of a win
ning season and playoff berth with a 31-13
beating in Athens at “Death Valley.”
The Gladiators’ Jeremy Hughes started
the third quarter with a 65-yard kick
off return for a touchdown, opening the
floodgates for a 28-point second half from
Clarke Central as the Gladiators raced past
Madison County for their third-straight
victory in the series.
Red Raider coach Randell Owens said
Clarke Central (8-2) adjusted well at
the half and took advantage of Madison
County’s overaggressive defensive tactics,
which included bringing eight-and-nine-
man blitzes at times.
‘As soon as they got in a position where
they could talk about it and say, “here’s
what we need to do,” that wasn’t really
effective in the second half,” Owens said.
For the second straight week, the Red
Raiders (5-5) — who scored very early
in their previous game against Apalachee
with a 51-yard touchdown on a fake punt
— jumped out to a quick lead with an
unconventional score and then didn’t find
the end zone again until the game was out
of hand.
This time, the big play came from
Marquis Thomas, who scooped a fum
ble midway through the first quarter and
returned it 65 yards to give Madison
— See ‘Football’ on page 2B
Youth Football
MC YA team records 11 straight shutouts
The Madison County Junior White Raider
football team produced some statistics that
most SEC defensive coordinators would
covet.
Thirteen games, 25 points allowed.
That included a streak of 11 straight shutouts
as the team went 12-1 and fell just short of an
area championship.
Madison County went 10-0 in the regular
season and then won its first two playoff
games, 42-0 and 46-13, before falling to AYA
12-6 in the title contest.
Through its first 11 games of the season,
Madison County outscored its opposition 315-
0.
Team members were Cameron Smith,
C.J. Smith, Chan Pethel, Bradley Pass,
Keeven Wilhite, Gholston Gillespie, Cortney
Stevenson, Ethan South, Enrique Holt, Rusty
Nelms, Logan Childers, Lydrakis Wilbon,
J.R. Clements, Luke Mercardante Jr., Timothy
Bates, J. Ben Turk, Dalton Stuchell, Prestin
Alcorn and Mason Bennett.
Coaches were Corey Stevenson (head
coach), John Pethel (assistant coach), Will
Smith (assistant coach), David South (assistant
coach), Grayson Gillespie (assistant coach).
Cija Mercardante was the team mom.
The Madison County Junior White football team recorded 11 straight
shutouts this year as it went 12-1. Submitted photo
Tough way
to end a
promising
2009 season
Despite a late slump,
Madison County’s 5-5 sea
son this fall certainly won’t
be remembered as bad. Far
from it.
But it will be recalled with
that dreaded refrain, “What
might have been?”
The Red Raiders’ season
ended Friday with a 31-13
loss to talented Clarke
Central as the team watched
a 7-3 halftime lead decom
pose in the third and fourth
quarters
in their
fourth
straight
loss.
Madison
County
won’t be
going to
the play
offs, when
just a
month ago
it appeared
the Red Raiders were in
prime position to do so after
a 5-1 start.
Friday's loss itself was
an allegory for a season
that started slow (season
opening loss to Rockdale
County), saw a big recovery
(five straight wins) and then
a lackluster finish (four
straight losses). Friday’s
slow start? A fumble on
the opening kickoff. The
big recovery? Marquis
Thomas’s 65-yard fumble
return for a touchdown
to grab the lead. And the
lackluster finish? Getting
outscored 31-6 over the last
three quarters.
So ends another 5-5
season in Red Raider foot
ball history, but Madison
County’s improvement over
last season shouldn’t be
overlooked.
It won three more games
than the 2008 squad, and
if not for a 57-yard run
with 27 seconds left from
Heritage's Garry Peters on
Oct. 16, the Red Raiders
would have finished no
worse than 6-4.(Madison
County lost the Heritage
game 21-20).
What’s more, Owens said
this team overcame more
obstacles than any football
team he can remember,
pointing out widespread
illness throughout the year
and gutsy wins over Winder-
Barrow, Cedar Shoals and
Salem.
“A lot of guys sick and
having to overcome a lot of
adversity in practice and just
dealing with things that I’ve
just never had to really deal
with in coaching, when a
third of your team is ill and
the next week another third
of your team is ill,” he said.
Still, this is a program
that now expects to have
winning seasons. This a
program that shoots for the
playoffs every year. With the
exception of the 2008 team,
all of Owens' Madison
County squads have gone
into the final game of the
year with the postseason on
the line.
So there’s natural disap
pointment when the helmets
and pads have to be stowed
away early.
“One on hand. I’m disap
pointed that we didn't do
better, but it’s not disap
pointment in the kids,”
Owens said. “It’s just that
disappointment in life that,
‘dang, what could I have
done as coach to get over
that little hump for them?’
Because I wanted it so bad
for them.”
It was so close. Again,
“what might have been?”
Ben Munro is a reporter
for The Madison County
Journal.
Ben Munro
From the
sports desk