With Jake Norris at quarterback, Madison Central rolls past Germantown 35-6

MADISON — It was déjà vu all over again for Madison Central with Jake Norris at quarterback, and the Jaguars got the win they needed to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Behind a stellar rushing attack and stingy defense, Madison Central raced past Germantown 35-6 in “The Jungle” in a key Region 2-6A matchup.

With the win, the Jaguars (5-3, 3-2 Region 2-6A) keeps their playoffs hopes alive and will need to win out to be the No. 3 seed, while Germantown (5-4, 3-2) must beat Starkville next to secure the No. 4 seed.

“Our kids needed this win bad," Madison Central coach Toby Collums said. "We played some really good teams, but we haven’t played well the last couple of weeks. To go out and execute and play well was refreshing on both sides of the ball.”

The Jaguars scored on the opening drive of the game, as Norris scampered 23 yards to the end zone to take a 7-0 lead with 10:35 left in the first quarter.

On their next possession, Norris capped of an 11-play, 80-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown run to extend the Madison Central lead to 14-0 with 3:21 left in the first quarter.

Norris added his third rushing touchdown of the game on a 4-yard run with 5:05 left in the second quarter to extend the Madison Central lead to 21-0.

“Jake is a team captain, leader and a special athlete," Collums said. "We asked him to be an extra running back and that’s what we did. Defense played lights out. We got to carry this momentum into next week and the week after.”

On the first play of the third quarter, Germantown mishandled a handoff exchange and Madison Central’s Chris Berry scooped up the fumble and ran 17 yards to the end zone to give the Jaguars a 28-0 lead.

Connor Brown had 12-yard run with 4:51 left in the third quarter to give Madison Central a 35-0 lead.

The Jaguars finished with 270 yards rushing total.

“My goal going into tonight was to go in and lead and do what I to do to win the game," Norris said. "Our goal was to run hard and hit them in the mouth. This is a good team win. We needed this win for our confidence, and hopefully we can build off this.”

Trae Stevenson had a 18-yard touchdown catch for Germantown late in the fourth quarter. The Mavericks only managed 24 yards rushing.

“They took us to the woodshed tonight,” said Germantown coach Russell Mitchell. “We got outcoached and out played. We will bounce back.”