Many coaches talk about the biggest improvement in a football season coming from game one to game two and the Madill Wildcats believe that earnestly after seeing several positive signs from their youthful bunch despite a 35-7 loss to Kingston last week.
The Wildcats notched 235 yards of total offense in the defeat, but head coach John Heavner was happy to see the progress of his extremely young quarterback Baylor Bond, who threw for 131 of thoseyardswithatouchdown on 12 completions.
“Baylor has just made incredible improvements,” Heavner commented. “He really met the moment in a game like that for a kid that just turned 15 years old. I’ve got to do a better job of getting us in position offensively. We didn’t convert at the end of the first half and that hurt us. If we score there to take the lead or even kick a field goal it gives us some momentum going into halftime, and that just shows how a few plays can change things. You can’t afford that against a good football team.
“After Kingston scored on the first drive of the second half we lost a little energy. We just have to learn to maintain our consistency through the ups and downs. I feel like we are a lot closer to playing good football than we showed in the second half on Friday.”
Senior Uziel Flores was another offensive bright spot for Madill, snagging seven receptions for 112 yards. One of those was a spectacular 49-yard scoring toss from Bond just one play into the second quarter that tied the score at 7.
Following a stand by their defense just past the midway point of the second stanza, the Wildcats looked to be marchingforapotentialscore beforeKingstoncameupwith a stand to hold them scoreless and carry a 13-7 edge to intermission.
TalynReamescontributed five catches for the Madill offense withCharlesThompson andKrisGrimaldoeachrushing for 30 yards to lead the way. Amauri Winston toted the ball six times for 23 yards.
The Madill focus now shifts to Friday’s road tilt at Marietta, which will be playing its first official game after skipping the zero week opportunity.
“We didn’t have a lot of missedassignmentsforgame one and that’s something we can build upon,” Heavner added.“Wehadafewmiscues that we can correct, but not many pre-snap penalties, which was impressive considering we had several guys that had not played a high school football game until Friday night. They met the challenge and didn’t shrink from the moment.
“Having a game under our belts of having played four quarters should help us this week, but we want to have a great week of practice and improve as a football team. We want to stack good moments together, focus on us and improve no matter who we are playing. Last week was a good foundation to make improvements and be a good football team. We just need to put our nose to the grindstone.”