Madison blows past Mountain Lakes

MADISON A long winning streak ended Saturday — and another long one just might have begun.

The Madison football team didn’t just end Mountain Lakes’ New Jersey-high 24-game winning streak Saturday. The Dodgers annihilated it. Crushed it, mauled it, obliterated it.

Madison came away with a 33-6 victory that was every bit as overwhelming as the final score indicated.

“It’s a big win,” Madison quarterback Nick Coviello said, “but it’s one game. Our goal is to win our 12th game.”

For one day, the Dodgers certainly had that state championship quality about them. They completely overpowered the Herd in the trenches, and there was very little the visitors could do about it. A two-time defending sectional champion going down so soundly doesn’t happen too often, but Madison showed that it meant business in the second half with a near-perfect third quarter that saw a 6-6 halftime score blow up to 26-6.

Madison scored on its four second-half possessions before both coaches brought in their reserves. The Herd? They went three-and-out three times during that stretch and had a pass intercepted the other time.

“We know what we’re capable of,” Madison coach Chris Kubik said. “We knew it was Mountain Lakes, so we knew we had to play hard. We’re physical, and our guys are tough.”

The Herd won’t argue with that.

“They just played an outstanding game,” Mountain Lakes coach Darrell Fusco said. “We had it 6-6 at the half and the ball at the 50 to start the second half. That’s not a bad place to be in. But then it was a one-way street after that.”

The Dodgers were a runaway truck on that street.

The tide seemed to turn when Madison DB Mike Martirano intercepted a Griffin Baker pass early in the third quarter. Madison took over, and two plays later, Zach Shupe blew through the Herd defense for a 67-yard touchdown. The rout was on.

Baker was sacked by Dante DiIonno on third down, and the Dodgers' offense went back to work. This time, it was with the pass as Coviello hit Justin Dalena with a 45-yard touchdown pass that saw Dalena come back for the ball, outwork the Mountain Lakes defender, then win the race to the end zone. Madison, 19-6.

Baker was nailed by Matt Boyd for a sack on second down, and the Herd punted. It was then Joe Mobley’s turn, as the senior running back had runs of 19 and 20 yards before taking a toss to the right side for a 3-yard touchdown.

Baker was sacked yet again — this time by Dalena — and the Herd had to punt again. Next on the Dodgers' hit parade was Dom Luppino, who rushed for a 3-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

“This was fantastic, phenomenal,” Luppino said. “They had a hard time getting first downs. We tried to change things up on them and everything worked. Both of our lines were phenomenal. This win was a testament to a lot of kids.”

The seeds for the win were planted during the week, when the Dodgers strung together great practice after great practice.

“We haven’t had practices like that for the last couple of years,“ Coviello said.

They haven’t had a win like this one, either. It could well be the first of many.