Dragons get kicked when down

JAMES JOHNSON
Star Beacon

October 12, 2007 01:38 am

— SAYBROOK TOWNSHIP — You just know it’s going to be a long night when your punter gets hurt in pregame warmups.
With senior kicker Jordan Newsome on the shelf after suffering a freak pregame injury, the Dragons’ special teams proved to be their undoing in a 35-14 homecoming loss to Premier Athletic Conference co-leader Madison on Thursday night at Lakeside Stadium.
On three separate punt attempts, Lakeside (2-6, 0-3 PAC) handed the Blue Streaks prime field position deep inside its own territory. Newsome’s backup Juan Aguinaga — who had just one punt try all season entering the game — saw one punt snap squirt by him for a fumble and was whistled down twice by officials before even booting the ball when he accidentally took a knee when fielding low snaps. Not surprisingly, all three botched punt attempts were converted into Madison touchdowns. Talk about your rough nights.
“Jordan pulled something when he was catching passes in pregame, so he wasn’t able to go,” Lakeside coach Van McWreath said. “He dislocated a rib or hurt a rib muscle or something like that. Those downed punts really cost us. It gave them great field position.”
Already up 14-0 on a pair of J.D. Ingalls to Nic DiLillo touchdown passes (13 and 5 yards, respectively), Madison capitalized on the initial fumbled punt snap when Aguinaga was tackled at his own 27 with 10:45 left in the first half. Nine plays later, sophomore fullback Ty Law scored from his 1 to extend the Blue Streaks lead to 21-0.
Lakeside was held to negative yardage on its next series, forcing Aguinaga to punt from his own end zone. Another low snap made the senior punter have to reach low for the ball, which in turn made him take a knee at his own 1, where he was promptly whistled down for the turnover. Law then scored his second touchdown from that spot one play later for a 28-0 Madison lead.
Mitch Krotz scored Madison’s last touchdown, a nine-yard run with 1:30 left in the third quarter, mere moments after another bad punt attempt gave the Blue Streaks possession at the Lakeside 33.
Though his team dominated from the get-go and outgained Lakeside, 337-133, in total yardage, Madison coach Tim Willis was still wary of the Dragons entering Thursday’s tilt.
“To be perfectly honest, this is one of those games that always make me nervous,” Willis said. “We played Chardon last week and I wasn’t near as nervous going into that game as I was going into this game with Lakeside.
“They have a great team over there. There were so many unknowns going in. That Sandidge is a great football player, and so is McCaleb. They can do some damage. This would’ve been a great spot for us to run into trouble.”
Madison still had its hands full with the Dragons, who despite trailing the entire game did not let up in intensity. Sandidge prevented Madison from going up 35-0 moments before halftime when he pried the ball loose from the 6-foot-5, 230-pound DiLillo after the tight end caught a long pass at his own 5. Early in the fourth quarter, the Lakeside defense forced Madison running back Steve Isabella to fumble at the Dragon 9. Kevin McCaleb quickly scooped up the ball and sprinted 91 yards untouched for his team’s first touchdown.
Junior quarterback James Christian (team-high 68 yards rushing) scored Lakeside’s second TD when he sprinted 54 yards for the end zone with 1:51 left in the game.
Still, Madison’s defense gave Lakeside first for most of the game. Before Christian’s touchdown run, the Blue Streaks had limited the Dragons to 76 yards rushing net. Lakeside entered the game averaging 255.0 yards rushing a game, second-best in the area.
“Our defense has been getting a little better each time out,” Willis said. “They gave us a good game tonight. We had to be patient and we were.”
“Hats off to their defense,” McWreath said. “We couldn’t do anything against them. They came out and executed well. Our mistakes hurt us. When you’re playing a team with a defense like that, you can’t keep giving them the ball like that.”
Madison can set up a long-awaited showdown with Riverside for the PAC title in Week 10 with a win at North next Friday. The last time the Blue Streaks visited Nick Carter Stadium they lost 31-21 in 2005.
“Right now, we have narrow focus,” Willis said. “Right now, we’re focused on North and that’s it.”

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