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The rain made things soggy and even ugly at times to play football in, but the field was the least of the problems in Avondale this past Friday.
A fairly clean first half of homecoming football left Madison and TJCA deadlocked at 0-0. Madison took the initial lead at 3-0 in the third quarter and that was answered by a Mac Martin touchdown run for an 8-3 TJCA advantage. Madison scored 15 unanswered from there, with the final touchdown scored off a Martin interception.
The 18-8 loss was the first of the season, but the conditions took a backseat to what came in the second half. Madison (6-1, 2-1) was flagged for a number of personal fouls and even sent Kaleb Munjas to the hospital after a vicious unnecessary shot, which could have caused paralysis. Fortunately, the last update I had didn’t seem as bad as first thought for the senior Gryphon.
Still, referees have a responsibility to keep the game under control and they didn’t do that this past Friday in Avondale.
After multiple fouls on the same players, none of those kids were ejected, nor after throwing Mac Martin down following the play a couple times very late. The Madison player who hit Munjas continued to play and play just as dirty as before. It’s a shame that the refs have the power and yet they don’t do enough to fix the problem.
My take, You warn the coach twice and then the third time, the coach has to go as well. Which the refs did talk to both sides more than once. Even Gryphons coach Jerry Cash still kept cool heads on his players shoulders until after the game when an incident took place at midfield. I am not sure exactly who started what, but the refs are the ones who have the power at the beginning of the game until it ends.
Much like the week before when the head ref called a Seahawks touchdown in a win over Green Bay during the last play of the game. Everybody knows that play was the wrong call. Although the refs during the Madison-TJCA game continued to penalize the Pats, it’s their responsibility to totally clean it up.
Whether or not the issues after the game will disqualify Thomas Jefferson (6-1, 2-1) or Madison from the playoffs is still a question at this point. Thomas Jefferson will travel to Burnsville as they face Mountain Heritage this Friday.
As for the rest of Rutherford County, they didn’t fare so well either on the gridiron.
East Rutherford fell 42-14 in Charlotte to a real good Providence Day team. Chase was shutout 35-0 at co-conference league leader, Burns. R-S Central also fell 49-7 at Freedom on Friday night.
Next week sets up a clash between the SMAC co-leaders, Burns (4-3, 2-0) at East Rutherford (4-3, 2-0). Chase (4-3, 2-1) will try to end a 40-plus game Golden Lion winning streak in the series at Shelby. And at the Palace for homecoming, it’s R-S Central (1-6, 0-3) hosting Patton. All four high schools in Rutherford County should have competitive games. I urge folks to go see a high school team play as the season is over halfway complete now. Even better news, at the moment three of four county teams have the credentials to qualify for the playoffs.
