At the time of Hubbard’s timeout speech, Carlisle (2-2) had just scored a touchdown to cut down the Mohawks' lead to 10 with nine minutes to go, and the first-year Madison coach knew they needed to chew up some time. The Mohawks responded with back-to-back runs for first downs to get things going, and by the time they turned the ball over on downs in the red zone, just 3:09 remained.
Carlisle’s hurry-up offense barely crossed midfield before a fourth-down sack sealed the game.
“I told the offensive line, ‘We are going to win or lose this game with you guys,’ and they buckled down and we got two consecutive first downs and that kind of iced it,” Hubbard said. “They rose to the occasion so I’m proud of them. They kind of took over the game. Carlisle is tough. They were sending linebackers from everywhere and they are a good team, so I just take a win as a win tonight. It was a good game, and our kids got better.”
That offensive line helped two running backs cross 100 yards rushing, as Dontai Pendleton rushed 25 times for 108 yards and two touchdowns and Logan Gibson finished with 128 yards and one touchdown on 17 carries.
Quarterback Brady Haas completed 2 of 6 passes for 47 yards, but his interception at midfield late in the third quarter – picked off by Talon Borders – gave the Indians a chance to try to rally. They put together a scoring drive, capped by Jayden Sweeney’s 7-yard touchdown run with 9:01 left to cut down Madison’s 16-point lead, but Carlisle failed to get the two-point conversion for the second time.
The momentum ended there for the Indians, as they couldn’t get stops on two key third downs and allowed Madison (2-2) to convert a fourth down with 4:56 left.
“We couldn’t put it together,” Carlisle second-year coach Scott Clodfelter said. “When we’d get close, we’d make a mistake or that type of thing, and defensively we didn’t tackle. We arm-tackled, didn’t do a good job with our responsibilities. We broke our coverage. It’s just small mistakes. I feel we are on our way to getting better. We are better than last year, but we have to stop making the little mistakes here and there that beat you.”
The Indians forced a turnover on downs at their own 8-yard line late in the second quarter to go into halftime down just 16-14, but the Mohawks got the ball to start the second half and the game quickly changed in their favor.
Madison scored four plays later on a 41-yard pass from Haas to Jessie Allmon, Carlisle fumbled on the ensuing drive and the Mohawks used a short field to extend their lead to 30-14 with 5:43 left in the third quarter.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
“We had some opportunities that we didn’t convert on and we could have,” Clodfelter said. “When you fumble in the second half -- they scored, we fumble -- in a tight game like that it’s going to cost you, and that’s what happened. We got hurt a little there in the third quarter.”
Quarterback Kole Larison led the Carlisle offense, completing 7 of 8 passes for 123 yards, while Borders finished with 46 yards rushing and two touchdowns and Sweeney carried the ball 17 times for 49 yards and one touchdown.
The Indians already have doubled their win total from last year when they finished 1-9 after a winless 2018 season led to the coaching change. Madison is in its first season under Hubbard and trying to improve after a down year in which the Mohawks went 5-5 to follow deep playoff runs in 2017 and 2018.
Madison has won two straight now after losing a pair of close games to open the season.
“First two games, that’s where we struggled was just finishing, so tonight they came together a little bit and that was great for us,” Hubbard said. “I was proud of our kids' effort tonight. We made some mistakes, but from a program standpoint we just need to keep getting better and I felt like we did.”
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