In this week’s Thursday night matchup, the Madison Prep Chargers traveled down the road to take on their rivals, the Southern Laboratory Kittens.
The Chargers started the game with the ball, but after going 3 and out, the Charges muffed the punt giving Southern Lab the ball on the Madison 31 yard line. Southern were not able to capitalize as the third play of their drive was an interception by the Chargers defensive back, Treylan James. After a couple penalties and a first down, the Chargers were forced to punt the ball back to the Kittens. This led to a Southern fake punt run which went for about 12 yards.
While both teams traded punting the ball back to each other, Southern Lab were the first to score and converted the 2-point conversion to make the score 8-0. Southern tried to keep the momentum up in the second quarter, but turnover issues were a big problem for them. David Jones had a huge interception that shifted the momentum, yet the Chargers were not able to convert. After a Southern fumble recovered by the Chargers, Jonathan Profit, they were able to capitalize with a rushing touchdown by quarterback, Tylan Johnson with :18 seconds left in the first half.
In the second half, the Chargers came out of halftime with a sense of urgency and energy. The young sophomore quarterback, Johnson showcased his arm talent with an incredible 41 yard touchdown pass to Hezekiah Dantzler. The Chargers offense was moving the chains down the field with the help of running back, Keilan Sherman. Sherman was the workhorse for the offense tonight as he led the team in rushing with around 90 yards on the ground, one touchdown and a couple receptions for 21 yards.
The Chargers were not finished as their special teams came up with a huge punt block. The ball was recovered by Dantzler and almost punched it in for the score, but was stopped short at the 2 yard line. The Chargers were able to capitalize with a rushing touchdown from Alfred McKnight. After going up 27-8 with 4;45 left in the fourth quarter, the Kittens did have much fight left in them.
The Chargers get their first win of the season against their rivals making them 1-1 on the year, and Southern Lab now drops 1-2 after their win against Liberty last week. The Chargers will be traveling to Scotlandville next week to face the Scotlandville Hornets on Friday, Sept. 16 at 7 pm.
Click here to see the Chargers remaining schedule.