Madison bragging rights on the line Friday night
Drew Davis (34) pursues a Northridge ballcarrier in action Friday night.
The Bob Jones Patriots are still smarting this week after an opening game loss to Northridge of Tuscaloosa. What makes it more painful is the fact the Patriots led 21-7 in the second quarter but fumbled away their chance to score a road win over a ranked opponent. The defense allowed Jaguar running back Bo Scarborough to rush for 214 yards and 3 touchdowns. The final score was 40-30.
Bob Jones head football coach Kevin Rose is not so much concerned about the yards given up in the loss to Northridge as he is about the four turnovers his offense committed which swung the momentum in the critical third quarter when Northridge scored two unanswered touchdowns.
“Coming out of the first game you see where you are and obviously we got a lot of things to work on,” Rose said. “Offensively we turned the football over four times, so we got to clean that up. Defensively we gave up forty points and we play better defense than that at Bob Jones. We are going to focus on improving this week and go out Friday and hopefully win a region game.”
There were bright spots last week such as Trey Bates 40-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Wright on the game’s first possession. Wright later caught another touchdown pass from backup quarterback Seth Parker. Sandwiched between was a long drive capped off by a Jay Rogers 7 yard touchdown run.
But now the coaches and players turn their attention to this Friday night when one of the most anticipated games of the season will take place. For the first time, Madison’s two high schools will meet in football. James Clemens High School will host Bob Jones at Madison City Schools Stadium at 7 p.m. Officials at both schools are urging fans to get their tickets early to avoid long lines.
The anticipation of the game has been growing among area fans for several months now. Extra seating has been brought in to accommodate the large crowd expected. The historic first game is also a region game for both teams making the game even more important.
“We’re going to prepare like we would for any other region opponent because it is a very important game. It is the first step toward the playoffs,” Rose said.
“We’re not going to try to make this game bigger than it already is. Every Friday night we’re going to go out there and put a good product on the field. I want to see how much we improve from last week.”
After giving up 40 points last week, the Patriots defense is determined to make that number go down to single digits.
“We are going to use that game as motivation and move on and look to the rest of the season,” said the leader of the Patriots defense, senior linebacker Drew Davis. “We can’t let one game keep us down so we’re going to keep on working hard.”
“This is a statement game,”Davis said of the meeting with James Clemens. “We are pretty much fighting for bragging rights this week. We want to win and we want to win big. Let them know we run Madison.”
For James Clemens, it’s a chance to put last weeks disappointing 20-7 loss to Johnson behind them and score a huge victory that would resonate through the halls of the new school for weeks and months to come. It would give the upstart program bragging rights with a signature victory over the established program.
