Discovery reclaims Madison middle school football title
Jaydon Hill of Discovery runs in middle school action against Liberty
(RECORD PHOTO/LINDSAY VAUGHT)
MADISON- On a night circled all year by Madison’s two middle schools, Discovery dominated both the seventh and eighth grade games to reclaim the title it lost last year. For the first time, the annual football game between Liberty Middle School and Discovery was played at Madison City Schools Stadium.
A nice crowd comparable to a high school game gathered.
Discovery won the seventh grade game by a final of 22-6 as Jayden Hill ran for over 100 yards and scored two touchdowns for the Panthers. Liberty got a touchdown on an eight yard run by Michael Flynn with 3:24 left in the fourth quarter.
Coach Brad Jefferson had his team ready to both stop the run and run the football. The formula for success has worked this season as the team is now 4-1.
“We’ve just been showcasing the talent,” Jefferson said.
“It’s been a solid team overall. We run to the ball, they can tackle, but we got to work on the passing attack. Everybody knows they can’t run on us.”
Discovery coach Brad Jefferson and QB Jamil Muhammed
He moved quarterback Jamil Muhammed to the eighth grade team because he was so dominant playing against seventh graders. Jefferson said the eighth grade team “is one of the most talented teams I have had. From top to bottom they are doing the job.”
The Discovery eighth graders jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead on a run by Kade Koler. Discovery also came up with two interceptions in the first quarter, one by Chase Fielder.
Running behind an offensive line that featured 6-foot-4, 250 pound Gavin Lewis Discovery piled up the yards and points. Demontrez Brown did most of the running and scored on a 14-yard touchdown run on the first play in the fourth quarter to put Discovery up 28-6. Quarterback Jamil Muhammed passed to Sam Barr for a 20-yard touchdown later in the fourth quarter to make it 36-6.
The final score was 44-6. Liberty falls to 3-2 while Discovery goes to 5-0 and will play in the North Alabama Middle School Championship game.
“Our season is not over, we still got three games left,” Liberty coach Michael Harper said. “We got to put this behind us and move on to the next game. We have a really good team, we just got outplayed tonight. We fought hard for three quarters and it got out of hand.”
Discovery players had a noticeable size advantage over Liberty. Quarterback Jamil Muhammed, who is a seventh grader, operated the offense. Demontrez Brown and Kade Koler dominated running the ball and playing defense.
