The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Madison finds bright spots
After losing fumble on first play, Blue Streaks bounce back vs. Lake Catholic
As the tried and true adage goes, it’s not how you start, but how you finish.
Coming off a 2-8 campaign a year ago, the absolute last thing Madison wanted Aug. 16 amid a final scrimmage against Lake Catholic was a turnover on its opening play.
But for a Blue Streaks’ squad eager to cast that 2-8 mark back into the abyss, the absolute last thing quarterback Alex Dragas and the regulars did in the first half was maybe the building block they needed.
With the first-string logging one half and reserves seeing the bulk of second-half action, Lake won the scrimmage, 24-8, at Jerome T. Osborne Sr. Stadium under the lights.
From a muffed handoff on the first play to a touchdown and twopoint conversion to close the first half, the view was a lot better for Madison coach Tim Willis and company as the evening wore on.
“Like I told our players, our whole mindset is thrown off when you fumble on the first play and they recover it right there,” Willis said.
“Then your whole psyche is gone. It’s all about how you react to things, and I thought we played good defense — made some plays, stopped them in crucial situations.
“Our offense, we have some playmakers. They’re still green, I would say. But we’re going to get better from this. These are learning experiences, you know? We came here and won this scrimmage last year and were 2-8. So I’m not interested in winning and losing. I’m interested in beating Geneva (in Week 1). That’s our main focus right now. We’ve got a lot of work to do. But things like this are going to help us beat Geneva.”
Bounceback drives like the one on which Madison embarked to close the opening half. Down, 10-0, Dragas completed backto-back passes to Marcel Welsh to build some rhythm, then capped things off with a 5-yard keeper for a TD and a twopoint conversion run.
>> Video: Watch Dragas’ TD run
Coming into his second year as the Blue Streaks’ signal caller as a junior, the play extension which Dragas displayed on the TD and the conversion was a welcome sight.
“I feel like we had a really slow start, which is never good in a football game,” Dragas said. “It’s hard to come back from that. And we made a lot of early mistakes. But I feel good about the fact we finished how we did.
“On the TD run, that was a read to run, so I took off and did what I was supposed to do. And then on the two-point conversion, we were trying to throw a two-point conversion pass. It got broken, and I had to extend the play with my feet. I saw a lane, took off running and it worked out well.” Seeing lanes in those instances is a sign of growth for which Willis is encouraged.
“He is a very athletic kid,” Willis said. “He’s smart. He’s athletic. This is his second year, so he’s a veteran player now. And he’s going to be good. We’re going to be as good as he takes us on offense. He’s a leader. He’s one of our captains, only as a junior. He’s a great kid and a great, athletic kid.”
For Lake coach Scott O’Donnell, there were some pleasing sights as well — capitalizing on the aforementioned fumble with a TD drive, and the defensive energy was solid.
“Against Strongsville (in a scrimmage Aug. 11), we didn’t do a great job stopping the run up front, especially up front with our linebackers,” O’Donnell said. “I think we improved there today. It’s against a physical football team who has always guys ready. We knew they were going to come out and get after us, so it was a good test to see if we were ready for that on defense.
“We have some ways to go on the pass rush. That last drive, we got out of our rush lanes a couple times and Dragas, their quarterback, is pretty good. He scrambled, got out of there and made some plays. So we’ve got some room to improve on before (Week 1), but overall, I’m excited about our defense.”
Dragas and the Blue Streaks are excited to try and exorcise 2-8 — and how they finished against Lake may aid that cause.
“We’re extremely hungry,” Dragas said. “That’s been the whole focus this offseason is getting away from that 2-8 mentality and getting onto a winning team, starting a winning culture around here. That’s what’s been driving us the whole time is to get as far away from 2-8 as we can get.”