MADISON — In the aftermath of Friday night’s game against Holy Name, Madison coach Mike Gilligan lamented the fact his young team let one get away.
Gilligan knew his team made too many costly mistakes as the Green Waves escaped Dick Hamblin Field with a 16-13 win over the Blue Streaks.
“We had every opportunity,” Gilligan said. “We should’ve won it. Didn’t win it. Give them credit. They played really hard and made plays when they needed to make plays, but our mistakes killed us.”
Still, despite losing three fumbles and having a punt blocked, Madison had a chance to win the game in the closing moments.
Trailing 16-3 with 7½ minutes remaining, Madison drove 36 yards for a touchdown in eight plays on the legs of junior Dom Gephart.
Gephart ran seven of those plays, capping it with a 2-yard run to cut the Holy Name lead to 16-13.
The Blue Streaks got the ball back with 2:51 remaining.
Gephart, taking many direct snaps, ran for 62 yards to the 1-yard line with 5 seconds remaining.
On fourth down, after a time out from each team, though, Gephart was stopped short of the winning score.
“They were loading up the right side and we thought we had good leverage to the left and we did,” Gilligan said citing a mental mistake made on the play.
Madison made several physical mistakes as well throughout the game.
A trio of lost fumbles in the first half led to Madison being down 13-7 at the half despite outgaining the Green Wave 162-100 yards in the opening frame.
Then, a blocked punt late in the third quarter led to a 23-yard field goal by Owen Pry to give the Green Wave a 16-7 advantage.
On its opening drive of the game, senior fullback Mason Nusker exploded for a 40-yard run that gave Madison the ball at the Holy Name 9 yard line. However, the Blue Streaks fumbled it away two plays later.
Madison took a 7-0 lead as it held the Green Wave on downs on the ensuing drive.
Four plays later, senior tailback Anthony Telenko scored on a 3-yard run.
However, Holy Name answered back on a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs by tailback Colt Troy in the second quarter to give the visitors a 13-7 lead at the half.
The first touchdown was set up by a lost fumble with just under 9 minutes left until half to give the Green Wave a short field on the drive.
Troy’s second touchdown was with 29 seconds left to give the Green Wave momentum heading into the locker room.
“You can’t beat a good team with three turnovers and a blocked punt,” Gilligan said. “It’s a killer.”
Gephart and Telenko led Madison rushing with 152 yards and 104 yards respectively.
Altogether, Madison had 308 yards rushing.
Conversely, Holy Name had a total of 178 yards on the night.
“I thought our defense played well, but we didn’t capitalize on our opportunities,” Gilligan said.
Madison (1-2) will begin Chagrin Valley Conference Lake Division play Friday, hosting Chardon.
Meanwhile, Holy Name (2-1) will have next week off and will go to Cleveland Central Catholic Sept. 18.
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