Madison County Red Raiders

Words aren’t quite fit to describe the punch to the gut that the Winder-Barrow football team absorbed Friday night.

The metaphor of a roller coaster doesn’t come close to doing it justice.

The Bulldoggs, looking to kick off the 2009 campaign on a positive note at home against Madison County, battled back from a 28-16 fourth-quarter deficit to take a lead, only to watch the Red Raiders come back with a go-ahead touchdown with 1:05 remaining and win the game, 35-29.

“Our kids played their hearts out,” a morose head coach Ben Corley said after Christian Davila’s final interception on a heave downfield slammed the door. “We had the game in our hands and I let it get away.”

Corley was referring to his call on a third-and long from the offense’s four-yard-line. The Bulldoggs had just stopped Madison on a fourth-and-goal play to preserve a 29-28 lead, giving them the ball back with 2:53 left on the clock.

Three yards on first down were negated by a false start, then Jake Foster could only gain a yard on a fullback dive, setting up third and nine from the four. Corley opted for a play-action fake and a deep route by Trent Demeritte, in the hopes of catching the Raiders off guard.

But the play was miscommunicated to the receiver, Demeritte ran an entirely different route and Davila’s pass floated right into the hands of Madison defensive back Presley McKeever, who returned it 38 yards to the Bulldogg 2.

“That was a terrible call,” said Corley, who said he took full responsibility for the turnover and the loss. “I can’t put the kids in a position like that. Those kids believed in themselves and each other and I let them down today.”

Davila said the broken play was a result of Demeritte, who was on the far side of the field from the Winder-Barrow sideline, not hearing the play correctly.

Granted the reprieve, Madison County quarterback Jacob Owens ran back-to-back one-yard sneaks, the second crossing the goal line.

Winder-Barrow got the ball back at their own 24 with 58 seconds left after the ensuing kickoff, but Davila’s pass, forced into coverage, was intercepted by Stan Maxwell.

The frustration was magnified exponentially by the fact that the Bulldoggs had scratched and fought their way back into the game. After playing catch-up for most of the night and falling into a two-touchdown hole when an intermediate pass to Patrick McCrary turned into a 77-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter, they refused to pack it in. Starting the ensuing drive from their own 21, they moved 79 yards in 10 plays – the highlight a gorgeous 58-yard bomb to Demeritte on a wheel route – and scored when Tyler Coleman took a screen pass in from seven yards out.

They forced Madison into a three-and-out on the Red Raiders’ next possession, then W. Clair Harris Stadium came unglued when Kendrick Davis, who would finish with 113 yards rushing on 22 carries, went right up the middle for a 46-yard touchdown. The point after by Randy Leighton gave them a one-point lead.

“We cleared him some space up front, he made one man miss and ran away from a few more,” Corley said.

The Madison offense made a couple huge plays to move back down the field after that, converting a do-or-die pass play on fourth and five from midfield on their way to the 10-yard-line. An incompletion then two running plays to Maxwell set them up with fourth down at the two.

Instead of kicking a go-ahead field goal, Madison opted for a gimmick formation with one back behind quarterback and center in the middle of the field and everyone else off to the side. They brought Jamal Cooper in motion left to right and handed it off, but Cole Dunagan read the play correctly and tripped Cooper up in the backfield for a one-yard loss to force the turnover on downs.

Davila’s uneven final line – 16-for-27 for 196 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions – belied a good night for the junior. His three interceptions came on a fourth-and-long that was a surrogate punt, the broken route and a last-ditch heave downfield into coverage.

“Our offense played really well,” Davila said. “Definitely we can build on this. We fix a few things and we’ll be rolling.”

Davis was the bell cow all night out of the backfield, rushing for two touchdowns (the first was a one-yarder in the second quarter that briefly tied the game at 14). However, he lost two fumbles deep in his own territory, and one led directly to Madison’s second touchdown.

Madison unveiled a surprise wishbone offense on the first series of the game and it worked, driving 52 yards on eight straight running plays and two defensive penalties for a touchdown run by Owens.

“We had seen everything except the wishbone,” Corley said. “Once we made the adjustments, defensively I thought we played great.”

The Doggs responded with a scoring drive of their own. They handed off to Davis four times for 19 yards, then decided to go for it on fourth-and-short from the Raiders’ 45. The Madison cornerback bit so hard on a play-action fake that Demeritte got eight yards behind him, and then he overran the underthrown deep ball in an effort to make up ground. Demeritte came back to haul in the pass and zipped to the end zone for the first score.