Tuesday, September 02, 2008
After leading Caldwell County 27-9 at halftime in Saturday’s Browning Bowl, the Madisonville-North Hopkins Maroons struggled a bit to maintain the same rate of success in the second half, but still came away with a 37-29 victory.
The Tigers outscored North 20-10 in the final 24 minutes of action, but a well-played first half put the Maroons in position to secure a win in the team’s season-opener.
“I feel like we came out and we thought we had it won after the first half,” coach Will Weaver said. “We came out kind of lackadaisical and they stopped us on our first drive (in the second half) and just kind of got the momentum from there.”
North’s Chris Scisney returned the second-half opening kick to the Maroons’ 36-yard line, and the team moved into Caldwell territory on the next play, a 20-yard connection between quarterback Matt Levin and receiver Carl Hatchett.
The drive failed to get another first down, and North was forced to punt away on its first possession of the half.
The Tigers began the ensuing possession from their own 3-yard line, but an offsides and late hit penalty on North, combined with a 25-yard pass play, allowed Caldwell to reach the Maroon 32-yard line.
North eventually slowed the Caldwell offensive push, and inherited the ball after a fourth-down stop.
On the next Maroon possession though, Caldwell’s Sam Grace intercepted Levin and took the ball 30 yards for the score.
Just seconds into the fourth quarter, the Tigers scored again and converted on a two-point conversion to cut the deficit to 30-23.
It took North just three offensive plays though to take back the points on its next drive. Levin found Ryan Robinson over the secondary for a 36-yard pass inside Tiger territory, and Scisney took over from there. Scisney rushed twice and capped the drive with a 24-yard touchdown.
Scisney said he knew the score was important as Caldwell inched closer.
“I was just thinking to myself, ‘I got to keep my feet pumping, and that’s what I did, and I scored with it,” he said. “When I seen that endzone I just seen myself smiling.”
In addition to the touchdown, Scisney rushed for 37 yards in the final quarter to help North hold onto the win.
Caldwell scored once more with 2:16 left in the game and got the ball back with an opportunity to tie, but North held the Tigers to a three-and-out and then ran the clock out.
Despite the rocky second half, the Maroons played quite well in the first half on both offense and defense.
Cornerback J.C. Wade led the team defensively with two interceptions and a forced fumble.
Wade’s forced fumbled, picked up by Jacquez Samuel, came on a screen pass, and the turnover set up the team’s first score.
“I tried, but I had a lot of help from my teammates.” Wade said of his attempt at the ball. “I feel like we’ve practiced real hard to watch the screens. I feel like we executed well, we gotta’ do better though.”
The North defense held Caldwell on its next two possessions, but the Maroons were forced to begin a drive from their own 1-yard line after a special teams mistake.
Levin dropped back to pass on the drive’s first play but Tiger Tron Gray wrapped him up in the endzone for two points.
“It was a play-action pass and I seen him coming at me,” Levin said. “I tried to duck under real quick. I don’t really know. I guess he just kind of fell on top of me.”
Levin and the offense got back on track later in the half though. After trailing 9-7, a 9-yard touchdown catch by Joe Kington gave North the lead back for good at 13-9, and Scisney scored at the 7:17 mark in the second quarter on a five-yard rush.
After the game, Levin said the team’s struggles in the second half came from lack of execution, not Caldwell’s adjustments.
“They ran what we expected them to, and seams were open like we expected them to do,” he said. “They went into man coverage a little bit, but pretty much the same stuff.
“We came out pretty excited (in the first half). I don’t know if we were tired or what. The second half, we just didn’t play very well.”
As for the defense, Wade said the team lacked some intensity in the second half, but will be ready next week.
“I feel like we relaxed too much in the locker room,” he said. “We weren’t as focused, but we will be next week when we play Central.”
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