Madison Central uses dominant second half to beat Starkville

Madison Central used a huge second half and a masterclass defensive performance to knock off Starkville 31-8, continuing to improve their playoff position during the final stretch of the regular season.

Both Starkville and Madison Central’s defenses traded blows through the first half and a Starkville touchdown just before the half gave the Yellow Jackson an 8-3 lead going into the halftime break. 

After that, Madison Central turned their game up to a different level in the second half, scoring 21 unanswered points in the second half and outsourcing Starkville 28-0 in total during the second half.

“We went with a little bit of tempo on them tonight and I think that caught them off-guard, especially in the second half,” Madison Central Head Coach Toby Collums said. “We saw a couple things on film in the passing game as well that we thought we could take advantage of as well.”

A majority of that second half success was thanks to a dominant Madison Central run game that saw a number of different Jaguars get involved, along with a shift to a quicker up-tempo offense in the second half.

“The run game is who we are and what we do,” Collums said. “We want to dominate the line of scrimmage and set up some shots that we’ll take when we have the opportunity.”

While running back Glen Singleton was the offensive star for Madison Central in the second half, scoring two rushing touchdowns, a big passing touchdown form quarterback Jaiden Johnson to receiver Zay Hart was also a turning point in this one. 

The offensive explosion in the second half will garner a lot of attention, and rightfully so, but the Madison Central defense has been consistently great all season long and has kept the Jaguars in games even when their offense sputters like it did with only three points in the first half against Starkville. 

“We came into this year wanting to play fast and physical and that’s what we have been preaching to the kids for weeks now,” Collums said. “We’re finally starting to put it all together and that’s a good football team with a lot of great athletes.”

With the playoffs looming, Madison Central will look to next week’s season finale matchup against Clinton to make sure they lock up home field advantage for the first round of the playoffs. 

If Madison Central wins, they will lock up the two-seed in the region. If Clinton wins, that will likely put them into the two-seed in the region and push Madison Central down to the three-seed. 

Madison Central will travel to Clinton on Thursday night for that critical region matchup, with kickoff set for 7 PM.