A few weeks back, the Madisonville-North Hopkins Maroons were hoping not to have to go on the road for the Class 5A playoffs. But on the road it is this Friday night, as the Maroons travel to Bowling Green for the second time in 8 days, this time to take on the Greenwood Gators in a first-round playoff battle.
The game is the first meeting between the Maroons and the Gators in eleven years. The last contest took place August 22, 2014 as Madisonville took a 13-9 win in a game played at Warren Central.
That night, with Brock Shoulders as the head coach, the Maroons got 112 rushing yards and one rushing TD from quarterback T.J. Phaup to knock off the Gators in the season-opener for both teams.
The Madisonville defense limited the Gators to just 152 total yards, all coming on the ground. That Maroon team finished the regular season 8-2 and advanced to the third round of the Class 4A playoffs before losing a 29-28 heartbreaker to Owensboro.
The Maroons also enter this year’s playoffs at 8-2, with the two losses coming in back-to-back home district contests against Apollo and Owensboro.
Madisonville is one of the highest scoring teams in the state, averaging 42.2 points per contest. The Maroons have only been held below 20 points one time and that came in the loss to Owensboro when they scored on the first possession of the game and never found their way back to the end zone.
The Madisonville defense is giving up 23.6 points per contest, but that figure is skewed by the losses to Apollo and Owensboro, where the Maroons yielded 110 points to their two district rivals.
The Gators enter the playoffs at 6-4. Greenwood’s losses came to South Logan, Warren County, South Robertson, and district rival Bowling Green. The Gators were competitive in all four losses and had realistic opportunities to win the games against Logan County, where they lost in overtime, and against Bowling Green, where they dropped a three-point decision to the Purples.
Greenwood averages 175.6 yards a game on the ground, led by Davis Chaney (729 yards, 17 TDs) and Nathan Self (599 yards, 4 TDs).
The Gators are only averaging 95.6 yards a game passing and have been picked off 10 times with just four touchdowns through the air.
Greenwood is scoring at a 25.5 points per game clip, while the Gator defense gives up on average 18.1 points per game.
Kickoff Friday night between the Maroons and the Gators is set for 7:00pm.
