By Dave Melton, For The Herald Bulletin
WINCHESTER — A shoulder injury to quarterback Jordon Cornelious led to a disastrous fourth quarter for the Madison-Grant offense Friday, resulting in a 30-22 defeat at the hands of the Winchester Golden Falcons in the Class 2A Sectional 27 semifinal matchup at Falcon Field.
“I don’t really know what happened,” said Madison-Grant coach Beau Engle. “Jordon was the man for us, but he got hurt and we had to bring in a quarterback that probably hasn’t had that many reps in practice.”
Three fumbles deep in Argylls territory — including one at the Argylls 1-yard line — allowed the Falcons to overcome a 19-point first-quarter deficit. While the Argylls held Winchester to an impressive negative-59 yards rushing, they could not contain junior quarterback Cole Lawrence, who completed 21 of his 39 passes for 247 yards and two touchdowns.
“Our DBs had a bad night,” said Engle. “Our run defense was good, our pressure on the quarterback was good. That’s what hurt us the most, was their passing game.”
“That’s something we work on,” Winchester coach Ryan Vermilion said of being able to pass in the rainy conditions. “It rained all summer and it’s rained all season. Our kids really know that they’ve got to work on ball security. If we’re going to be successful, we have to be able to run and pass in any weather.”
It was all Madison-Grant at the start of the game, as the Argylls raced to a 19-point lead, paced by 110 yards on the ground in two drives and a Tyler Young touchdown on an interception return. At that point, Madison-Grant had 110 total yards, while Winchester had negative nine yards.
“These guys were fired up,” said Engle. “We really executed well there in the first quarter. Offensively, I don’t fault what we did. We had an awesome first quarter.”
Then, Winchester’s offense got started. Coming out in the shotgun and using a no-huddle, Lawrence fired two passes that moved the Falcons to the Argylls’ 20. Facing a fourth-and-23 four plays later, Lawrence completed a 25-yard pass to Matt Friend, setting up a 2-yard touchdown run by Lawrence to get Winchester on the scoreboard.
Friend made another big play moments later, recovering an onside kick at the Madison-Grant 48. Lawrence capped the ensuing drive with a 1-yard score, making it 19-14.
Dylan Helpling added a 23-yard field goal six minutes later to make it 22-14 in favor of the Argylls at the half.
They were the final points for the Argylls.
Late in the third, Madison-Grant started with the mistakes that ultimately ended its season. After a sack by Young — who had two in the game — forced Winchester to turn the ball over on downs, the Argylls gave them the ball right back with a fumble. Winchester capitalized with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Ray Arredondo, but failed on the two-point conversion attempt, making the score 22-20.
On their next possession, the Argylls fumbled again, but a Wesley Gunning interception quickly ended the Winchester drive, although Gunning was tackled at the Madison-Grant 3-yard line.
The final Argylls fumble of the fourth quarter came on the next play, with Winchester recovering at the 1. The Falcons lost 10 yards on the next three plays, but were still in range for a 28-yard field goal from Evan Baldwin, giving the Falcons their first lead at 23-22.
Madison-Grant could not do anything on offense, turning the ball over on downs in four plays, and Friend added the final score with a 28-yard touchdown reception.
Friend was the leading receiver, with nine catches for 105 yards.
For the Argylls, all 277 of their yards came from the ground game. Neil Stevens had 20 carries for 126 yards and a touchdown, Cedric Presley carried seven times for 90 yards and a touchdown and Cornelious added 67 yards on 13 attempts before leaving with an injury.
