Madison Central wins shootout over rival Clinton
Madison Central went into a road matchup with rival Clinton and came out with a huge 49-39 win on Thursday night, clinching the two-seed in Region 2-7A and at least one home game in the 7A playoffs.
Senior running back Glen Singleton was the star of the night in this one and carried the load for the Jaguar offense throughout the game, scoring five of the seven touchdowns on the night for Madison Central.
“He is just a football player, plain and simple, he is going to compete and give you everything he’s got on the football field,” Madison Central Head Coach Toby Collums said. “Our offensive line did a good job and you saw how elusive he is once he gets behind them.”
While Madison Central usually wins in low-scoring defensive battles, the Jaguars proved the ability to be able to win in shootouts as well.
“Overall I’m proud of us offensively, but I didn’t think we played a clean game on that side of the ball,” Collums said. “Clinton is a very good team offensively and we did a good job of answering offensively.”
Even though the Madison Central defense gave up 39 points in this matchup, they came up with stops in several key spots, holding Clinton to three total points on two separate occasions from inside the five yard line, which proved to be major as the game went along.
“The one thing we didn’t want to do was get into a shootout with Clinton, but that’s what ended up happening,” Collums said. “We got those two stops in the redzone and that ended up being huge for us with it being a ten-point game, but we have to play cleaner on the defensive side of the ball.”
With the regular season now finished for Madison Central, the Jaguars shift their focus towards the MHSAA 7A playoffs. Madison Central fell in last year’s semifinals to Starkville and are looking to get back to the state finals for the first time since 2021, when they won the state championship.
“I think we just need to keep preaching what we’ve been preaching going into the playoffs and that’s consistency,” Collums said. “I don’t think we played a complete game tonight and we have some things we need to work on, but overall I’m proud of this group. It’s a one-game season every week from now on.”
Madison Central will host DeSoto Central, who finished third in Region 1-7A, in the first round of the MHSAA 7A playoffs next Friday, with kickoff set for 7 PM.