(Donald Foster, WBONTV.com)
Round 2 of the high school football playoffs are tonight, the Madison Southern Eagles are one of only 16 teams remaining in class 5A and tonight they host a familiar foe, the Bearcats of Anderson County travel to Berea after their upset victory last week over Fern Creek in Louisville.
Just 3 weeks ago these two teams matched up in Berea for a district title and this week the stakes are higher, winner advances to the regional final. Madison Southern rolled to an opening round victory over Louisville Atherton 36-3.
The Eagles were able to get a running clock with 8 minutes left in the 1st half. Landon Stacy with a solid game from QB was 7-12 for 118 yard and 4 touchdowns through the air. Smith finished with 92 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Zach Howard, Hunter Richardson Carter Smith, and Tobias Storm all caught touchdown passes in the rout. Jordan Castell had his 8th interception of the season in the game and with that int he set the all time season record for picks in a season.
Now to the main event, this week’s match-up with the Bearcats. Back on October 20 the Eagles won the game 41-20. That game started with a Carter Smith 67 yard touchdown run and the Eagles never looked back. Smith finished with 3 touchdowns on the ground and Landon Stacy added 2 scores on the ground and the Eagles led 41-7 early in the 3rd quarter. Anderson County came back to make the score respectable but it was a solid victory for Madison Southern. Zach Labhart had 61 yards and a touchdown for Anderson and added a kickoff return for another touchdown. Blake Franklin had 135 yards and a score on the ground for the Bearcats as well. In the win last week Anderson won 14-7 in a tight contest where Blake Franklin returned a fumble 77 yards for a touchdown that was the difference.
Tonight’s contest will be played in cold weather, wind chill factors expected around 20 degrees at kickoff. Both teams like to run the ball and could the weather play a factor tonight? The Eagles need a big home crowd tonight so if you can get out and support the team but if you can’t make it you can listen to the game on 103.5 FM, 106.7FM or watch the game live on WBONTV.com.
