Madison Central's season ends in semifinals
TUPELO – Madison Central’s state championship aspirations came up just short on Friday night, falling 21-3 to top-ranked Tupelo in the MHSAA 7A semifinals.
The Jaguars were unable to find any sort of offensive rhythm against a stifling Tupelo defense, being held to only 164 total yards for the game. Madison Central was without leading rusher Glen Singleton, which left a major hole on offense.
“They really won the line of scrimmage, we couldn’t control that part of the game tonight,” Madison Central Head Coach Toby Collums said. “We try to hang our hat on running the football, but just couldn’t get anything going.”
Madison Central also had a tough time stopping Tupelo running back Jaeden Hill, as the 7A Mr. Football winner and Mississippi State commit ran for 237 yards and all three of Tupelo’s touchdowns on the night.
However, the Madison Central defense still put together a solid performance, especially when defending the pass.
The Madison Central secondary only allowed 104 yards through the air and the defensive line was able to effectively put pressure on the quarterback, led by Myles Miller and Roderius King who each had a sack and two tackles for loss each.
“(Jaeden) Hill is Mr. Football for a reason, but I think we got after it defensively,” Collums said. “Same thing, they controlled the line of scrimmage on that side of the ball as well, but I think our guys did a great job of slowing it down.”
It was certainly not the way that Madison Central wanted their season to end, but the Jaguars were led by a great group of seniors that made an impact on the program that will last for years to come.
“We have a really gutsy group of seniors that have left a real impact on our program,” Collums said. “I have watched them grow up and am super proud of them, we just didn’t have our best stuff tonight.”
Madison Central finishes the season at 10-3, marking the 18th double-digit win season in program history. Tupelo advances to the 7A championship game against Brandon next week.