MC hopes to topple Stonewall

By Ron Houser
Eagle Correspondent
Published: October 2, 2008

After playing three of their first four games in the friendly confines of Eddie Dean Field at Booster Park, the Madison County Mountaineers football team takes to the road Oct. 3 for gridiron action against the Stonewall Jackson Generals of the Shenandoah District.

“This is our second road trip. We have to have a good week of practice and go over (to Stonewall) with the mindset to play tough Mountaineer football,” said Madison Coach Stuart Dean.

The Generals will be the Mountaineers third straight opponent from the Shenandoah District. Two weeks ago, Madison handily defeated the Luray Bulldogs. Last Friday, Madison came out on top of a hard fought homecoming match-up against the Page County Panthers by a score of 21-14. That victory boosted Big Blue to 4-0 on the season.

“It’s good to get the win,” said Coach Dean in reference to the Page game. “It was great to see our players compete at the end and not give up. They stayed together as a team and fought for the victory.”

The 4-0, 0-0 record represents the best start to a season for Madison since the 2006 season.  Madison opened that year 4-1; the lone sting coming against a talented Orange County Hornet team in the second game of the year.

“We’ve had a good start but we are just trying to get to 5-0. We need to stay mentally focused,” said Madison senior defensive back Nick Aylor. “If we keep our focus and discipline, we should be alright.”

Entering the Stonewall contest, the Mountaineer defense has allowed their opponents a stingy 29 points, while the offense has tallied 107.

Stonewall enters the contest with an overall record of three wins and one loss. The Generals defeated an ever-improving Strasburg Rams team 21-12 last Friday. That victory followed wins against George Mason and Central Woodstock. Stonewall’s lone loss so far this season came in their second game of the year, a 21-6 setback to the Clarke County Eagles.

When asked about the Generals’ tendencies, Dean said, “Stonewall runs the ‘Power I’ on offense. We are going to have to do a good job on stopping the run. Defensively, they run a 5-2 and play some man coverage. We haven’t seen much of this defense style.”

“Stonewall plays tight pass coverage on receivers,” added senior wide receiver Sam Utz.  “We will have to be more physical off the ball.”

The Generals will be seeking to avenge last year’s 27-7 thrashing at the hands of the Mountaineers at Dean Field. In that contest, quarterback Will Taylor threw for 144 yards on only six completions. Running back Logan Terrell tallied three TDs for the Mounties.

Stonewall will have to stop the balanced Mountaineer attack to keep Madison from improving to 5-0. 

Kick-off is 7:30 p.m. in Quicksburg.