The Golden Eagles crush visiting Gamble
By NICOLE HOMSHER
For The Madison Press
Where has this Madison-Plains offense and defense been for the last umpteen years?
A week after hanging 35 points on Cedarville in a victory, the Golden Eagles clobbered Cincinnati Gamble Montessori, 42-12, Friday night.
Granted, the first two opponents weren’t exactly juggernauts, but you can’t take away from the way Madison-Plains has executed its offense and defense in the first two games.
“I thought our defense came ready to play from the very beginning,” Madison-Plains coach Mike Siders said. “We talked about being mentally prepared and coming out strong and playing the entire game with a winning mentality.”
The Eagle defense started the tempo by pushing Gamble to a three-and-out on their first drive and earning a safety when Gamble’s punt team snapped the ball back through the end zone, giving the Eagles an early 2-0 lead. This was done without talented senior quarterback Ryne Davis or senior running back Steven Lemieux having to step a foot on the field.
After a false start on Gamble’s kickoff the dynamic Eagles offense had great field position on the Gators 46 yard line. However, a bad handoff led to the first turnover of the game and the Eagle defense had to step in and control the line of scrimmage. With the defense tuned in and dialed up, they wanted a turnover of their own and with the next play of the game they got their first turnover, giving the Eagle offense a fresh start.
On the first play of the drive, Lemieux gained rhythm and earned a much needed first down for the Eagles. The Eagles then ran sophomore Travis Chaffin in the mix getting all the way down to the 1-yard line before Davis got the touchdown to make the score 9-0 with 7:15 left in the first quarter.
Once again the defense stepped up big and held Gamble to another three-and-out giving the Eagle offense another chance to get in the end zone with great field position.
Then the penalties came, something that plagued the Eagles’ offense throughout the first quarter holding them out of the end zone on back-to-back drives, cancelling out a great catch from senior wide receiver Alex Williams and keeping the score 9-0 after the end of the first quarter.
“The first quarter was pretty sloppy on offense but our defense kept playing hard and kept giving our offense chances to get in the end zone,” Siders said. “I told them they had to just keep on playing and we would start getting into a rhythm in the second quarter.”
With the defense continuing to keep the Eagles in the game, the second quarter started with the Eagle offense driving and with the help of a pass interference call on Gamble, a few punishing drives from Lemieux, Davis decided to once again run it in from the one yard line to give the Eagles a 15-0 lead with 7:23 left in the first half.
After another three-and-out from Gamble, the Eagles offense began driving down the field and capped off a great drive, with junior Grant Johnson scoring the third touchdown of the game on a 14-yard run to give the Eagles a 22-0 lead with 4:17 left in the second quarter.
With the defense being relentless, Williams intercepted the ball and set the offense up with another change to score this time being from the three yard line, but like the first quarter penalties pushed back the Eagles and forced them into scoring from the 12-yard line with a great run from Lemieux making the score 29-0 with 2:17 left in the first half.
A third turnover forced by a dominant Madison-Plains defense set up another opportunity for the Eagle offense to get into the end zone one more time this half this time from the 25-yard line. With Lemieux taking most of the workload, the Eagles drove down to the four before he ran it in, making the score 35-0 with 1:07 left in the half.
And once again the defense took care of business ending the half with another three and out from Gamble to make the score 35-0 at the half.
For the first time all game the defense started the second half giving up a first down, but wouldn’t give up another one and they once again intercepted the football giving the offense great field position.
And just like the previous drives tonight, penalties pushed the Eagles back giving Gamble a little breathing room. On fourth and eight, Lemieux just wouldn’t give up giving the Eagles a first and goal from the two, and then capping it off with another touchdown run to make it 42-0 with 2:55 left in the third quarter.
After a dominant first half and most of the third quarter, the Eagle defense cracked allowing Gamble’s Javontae Lipscomb to run 80 yards for a touchdown and giving the visitors their first points of the game with 2:55 left in the third.
The beginning of the fourth quarter started with the Eagles offense not being able to find the end zone and turning the ball over on downs at Gamble’s 15 yard line. Gamble then put together a drive of their own getting all the way down to the 50 yard line before getting sacked and going all the way back to their own 25 before Lipscomb caught a 76 yard pass to score his second touchdown to make the score 42-12 with 2:46 left to go in the game.
“I thought our defense played extremely well tonight holding them to only 12 points,” Siders said. “Our offense definitely needs to work on watching our penalties and being all on the same page, but that will come as the season progresses. I am proud of the way the boys played tonight and they effort that they put forth tonight.”
