After taking advantage of a Madisonville-North Hopkins turnover to score the first touchdown of the night and then only trailing by six at the half, the Marshall County Marshals and their fans may have been having visions of knocking off one of the state’s top-ranked and unbeaten teams Friday night. However, those dreams became one big nightmare for the Marshals in the second half as the Maroons exploded for 42 second-half points on the way to a 55-14 win in Draffenville in the district opener for both teams.
The night got off to a bumpy start for the Maroons. On the first possession of the game, Madisonville fumbled the ball away on the third play, giving Marshall County a first down at the Maroon 28 yard line with 11:05 to go in the first.
It took the Marshals nearly five minutes to go the 28 yards, but they finally punched it in with 6:22 to go in the quarter. Neyland Jezik rammed it in from one yard out to put the Marshals ahead 7-0.
It did not take the Maroons long to respond to the early score for Marshall County. Alex Richards connected with Ryder Sandidge on a 54 yard catch and run with 5:15 to go in the first and the game was tied at 7-7.
After giving up the score on the short field on Marshall County’s first possession, the Madisonville defense simply smothered the will out of the Marshals over the rest of the first three quarters.
Following a Marshall County punt, a Madisonville drive stalled out and Noah Mays connected on a 42 yard field goal to give the Maroons the lead for good at 10-7 with :21 left in the opening quarter.
Another Marshall County punt, another stalled drive, and another Alex Richards field goal, this one from 41 yards, extended the Madisonville lead to 13-7 4:52 to go in the half. The rest of the half was quiet as neither team was able to get anything going over the final minutes of the half.
Trailing only 13-7 at the half, the Marshals and their fans may have believed that they were still in the game and had a chance to pull off the big upset. The opening moments of the second half would dissipate those thoughts pretty quickly.
While games all across the area were being delayed due to lightning and bad weather, it was the Madisonville offense and defense that unleashed thunder in the second half of the game in Draffenville.
The Maroons took over at their own 37 following a Marshall County punt on the first drive of the second half. Ryder Sandidge broke loose and powered his way to the end zone on a 43-yard run with 9:10 to go in the third and, with the two point conversion, the Madisonville lead was 21-7.
On the ensuing kickoff, the Maroons squibbed the kick and Sandidge came up with ball, setting the Madisonville offense up on the Marshall County side of the field.
Markezz Hightower found the end zone on a 8 yard run with 7:31 to go in the third to move the lead out to 28-7.
After a defensive stop, the Maroons were right back in business. Ryder Sandidge scored his third touchdown of the night on a 7 yard touchdown run with 2:20 to go in the third and things had gotten away from the Marshals with a Madisonville lead of 34-7.
The Maroons lowered the boom in the opening moments of the fourth quarter when Kirk LaGrange picked off a pass and returned it 55 yards for the score, making it a 41-7 game with 11:50 left.
The only real letdown for the Maroon defense came less than a minute later when Kolten Winsett outran everyone for a 66 yard touchdown to cut the lead to 41-14 with 10:37 left.
A minute and 8 seconds after that, Alex Richards found a wide open Evan Wilson streaking down the left side and connected for a 58 yard touchdown pass. A two point conversion got the game to running clock status at 49-14 with 9:29 left.
Rylen Dame added a late 18 yard touchdown run for the Madisonville reserves to get to the final score.
The Maroons piled up 413 yards of total offense, 243 on the ground and 170 through the air. Markezz Hightower ended up with 81 yards on the ground. Ryder Sandidge was right beind him with 80.
The Maroon defense allowed just 148 total yards, 66 of that coming on one second half touchdown run.
Madisonville now goes to 5-0 overall and 1-0 in district play. The Maroons are set to host Graves County in a big district battle on Homecoming Night in Madisonville. Last season, the Eagles knocked off the Maroons in a monsoon in Mayfield 19-0.
