Madison Academy breezes to region opener win

MADISON – Call it pool play.

The football teams in Private School Double-A are playing for seeding in the state playoffs since the Alabama High School Athletic Association decided to let all 16 teams in the division into the postseason playoffs.

Madison Academy isn’t taking anything for granted, though, as evidenced by its 54-7 thrashing Friday night of visiting St. John Paul II at Bill Washington Stadium in the Region 2 opener for both.

“We played pretty well,’’ Mustangs head coach Bob Godsey said. “We have a young team that is working hard to try to figure it out, so we just gotta keep battling.

The host Mustangs bolted to a 23-7 lead in the first quarter and were up 38-7 at halftime.

For Madison Academy (2-1, 1-0 region), junior quarterback Charleston Owens was 8-for-10 passing for 201 yards and two touchdowns. Jordyn McClain had 10 rushes for 100 yards with two touchdowns, giving him two straight games reaching the century mark on the ground.

Also, Cam Childress returned a kickoff 75 yards for a score, and sophomore Chase Hurt had two catches for 37 yards and a TD.

For JPII (0-3, 0-1), Maxton Benavides threw an 8-yard TD pass.

This week, Madison Academy travels to play Westminster (0-3, 0-1). The winless Wildcats have struggled, losing to Madison County (49-14), Douglas (47-14) and Briarwood (49-7).

Godsey and staff will have to keep the young team from losing focus preparing for a second-straight winless opponent.

“The positive to this group so far since January is they show up at work every day,’’ he said. “But you know you’re always on guard for that. We’ve had good leadership. It’s important that our older guys that have been through this understand we’ve got some tough ones down the road that you better be preparing for.’’

After Westminster, No. 5 Madison Academy travels to Birmingham to take on top-ranked Briarwood (3-0, 1-0).