Madison Warhawks

Oakton Holds Off Cross Town Rival Madison

(OAKTON, VA) - One thing is for certain; you can throw out the records and conventional wisdom when it comes to deciding the outcome of "The Outback Bowl", the annual football game against cross-town rivals Oakton and James Madison. The two squads are on different ends of the spectrum when it comes to experience. The Oakton Cougars returned many of their contributing players, while the Madison Warhawks entered the 2008 season with one of their youngest teams in recent memory.

The season could not have started worse for Oakton head coach Joe Thompson. On the first play from scrimmage quarterback Chris Coyer pitched the ball to Ryan Harris, who splits time at quarterback, and he threw an interception to the Warhawks' safety Taylor Mead. In fact on the next two offensive possessions Jonathan Meadows fumbled the ball twice giving the undersized Warhawks a chance to win this game. The Cougars' defense was up to the task stopping the Warhawks after each of the turnovers as the first quarter ended still scoreless.

The scoring started in the second quarter after Warhawks' quarterback Will Clarkson pulled a Houdini act by evading a rush and throwing a 60 yard pass downfield to set up a five yard rushing touchdown from Sasha Vandalov. With 4:00 left in the 1st half the Cougars finally got on the board with a rushing touchdown from Trey Watts, but the extra point was missed and the two squads went into halftime with the upstart Madison on top 7-6.

At the start of the third quarter Oakton kicked off, and as the ball drifted towards the sidelines it miraculously remained inbounds. None of the members on the Warhawks' return team picked up the football, and a heads up play by Thomas Vitale for Oakton allowed the Cougars to regain possession on the Madison five yard line. The Cougars quickly took advantage with a touchdown pass from Coyer to Vitale. After a successful two-point conversion the Cougars were leading 14-7.

The Warhawks did not play as a young team. Madison showed poise, tying the game quickly with a 40-yard touchdown pass from Clarkson to Mike McCool. With the game hanging in the balance for Oakton, Coyer took off out of the Cougar backfield and simply out ran the entire Madison defense for a 48-yard rushing touchdown in what would end up being the final score of the game, 21-14.

This game was sloppy from the beginning as Oakton and Madison both had double-digit penalties. The Cougars could only muster one first down in the second half of the game. Nonetheless Oakton prevailed and dodged a bullet taking home the "Outback Bowl" trophy. Oakton will host Annandale next week in a game that can be heard live online at www.GamedayMagazine.com on the Gameday Radio Network. The Madison Warhawks will travel to take on Yorktown next Friday night.

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