After digging a deep early hole last week, Madill head football coach Wade Couch liked the progression he saw from his undermanned, youth-laden squad despite a 51-14 loss at Ardmore.
The Wildcats take on another team in search of its first win of the season this week when they travel to Chickasha.
In last week’s Ardmore tilt, the Tigers utilized their athleticism in building an insurmountable 41-0 lead early in the second period before Madill found some rhythm behind Rodrigo Cruces, Ramiro Rangel, Dagoberto Gonzalezandcompany.
Madill utilized a mixture of Christian Smith and Landon Clutter runs during a 70-plus yard march that eventually culminated on a 15-yard scoring toss from Christian Smith to Justin Smith just before halftime.
“The first quarter was really rough for us on both sides of the ball,” head coach Wade Couch stated. “Our kids played hard but we weren’t able to contain their speed, especially in the first quarter. We were able to put together a nice drive and score just before halftime.
“I was proud of the way the kids stayed with it and competed throughout the game. We challenge them at halftime and had a great drive that took most of the third quarter clock.”
The Wildcats’ time-consuming march netted most of the third stanza as they wrapped up the drive on a Clutter three-yard run to start the final stanza.
Christian Smith then hit Justin Smith with the twopoint conversion and final Madill points of the night.
Unfortunately, the Wildcats suffered a couple more injuries, including a possible broken hand that might narrow the participation numbers again this week. Couch hopes for another return or two from concussion protocol for this week’s Chickasha contest.
“We’ve watched Chickasha on film and they are pretty talented to be 0-6,” the Madill coach said. “They run the ball well and have a solid offense. Defensively they do kind of the same things we do but they aren’t nearly as big as what we have seen the last couple of weeks against Ardmore and Tuttle. It’s a better matchup for us.
“Ardmore doubled them up in score and we are hoping that we can do some similar things and control the clock and ball like we did the end of the second quarter and third quarter on Friday. It really helped us set up the play action pass. We just have to be really good at fundamentals. That’s what we will work strong on this week.Wemustfocusondoing things we need to in order for sustainedsuccessanddriving the ball.”