Calhoun spoils Madonna’s homecoming
Andrew Grimm BACK TO PASS — Madonna's Evan Kaczmarek fires a pass under pressure against Calhoun on Friday night.
Andrew Grimm FIGHTING FOR YARDS — Madonna's Thomas Davdison drags a Calhoun defender for extra yards on Friday night.
Andrew Grimm YARDS AFTER CATCH — Madonna's Luke Wingett turns up field looking to gain yards after making a catch against Calhoun.
Andrew Grimm HITTING THE HOLE — Madonna's Evan Kaczmarek finds room to run on a QB keeper against Calhoun.
Andrew Grimm TACKLING — Madonna's Aiden Cunningham and Justin Kaczmarek rally to bring down Calhoun's Chase Schoolcraft.
Andrew Grimm BACK TO PASS — Madonna's Evan Kaczmarek fires a pass under pressure against Calhoun on Friday night.
Andrew Grimm FIGHTING FOR YARDS — Madonna's Thomas Davdison drags a Calhoun defender for extra yards on Friday night.
Andrew Grimm YARDS AFTER CATCH — Madonna's Luke Wingett turns up field looking to gain yards after making a catch against Calhoun.
Andrew Grimm HITTING THE HOLE — Madonna's Evan Kaczmarek finds room to run on a QB keeper against Calhoun.
Andrew Grimm TACKLING — Madonna's Aiden Cunningham and Justin Kaczmarek rally to bring down Calhoun's Chase Schoolcraft.
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WEIRTON -- Coming into a re-start year, first-year Madonna coach Shawn McKinnon knew Madonna was going to have some growing pains.
His Blue Dons are still working through them, but also still showing a lot of fight halfway through their first season back on the field.
Both were on display Friday night when the Blue Dons dropped a 34-6 decision to visiting Calhoun on homecoming night at Jimmy Carey Stadium.
Madonna fell in an early hole, had some costly turnovers and penalties which stymied their momentum and had to adjust to a unique Calhoun defense, but put together a scoring drive in the fourth quarter and had a strong second half on the defensive side of the ball.
"Turnovers will kill you every time, we would start moving the ball and get something going and then there would be an interception or a fumble or something negative and that hurt us," McKinnon said. "Mistakes happen. It comes with having a young football team and kids that haven't played after not having a season last year. We are still fighting and working to get better."
The Dons (1-5) fell behind 14-0 after one quarter and 28-0 at halftime, but kept battling despite the deep hole and played the Red Devils (4-1) even in the second half. The defense came up with a turnover and a fourth down stop after the break and Madonna's offense had 127 of their 156 yards after Danyka DeCaria was crowned homecoming queen at halftime.
"We kept playing hard all the way to end. We kept fighting and I'm proud of the kids for that," McKinnon said.
The second half improvements culminated in a 32-yard Thomas Davidson score on a catch-and-run off a screen pass from Evan Kaczmarek that got Madonna on the board.
Kaczmarek, who took over at quarterback after Vinny Chiodi started, finished 11 of 24 for 117 yards and the score, but threw two picks. He had 101 of those yards in the second half..
Davidison had a 100-yard night with 42 yards on 11 carries and four catches for 61 yards.
Calhoun, using a lot of counters and direct snaps to multiple players, ran the ball 61 times for 425 yards and four of their five scores. They only completed two passes, but one of them went for a score as well. Some 315 of those yards came before halftime as Madonna did have a better defensive showing after halftime adjustments.
"Calhoun is a good football team, they run the ball, block and control the clock and that's what they did tonight, "They run a direct snap and throw a lot of misdirection at you.
"I thought we did a better job against it in the second half."
Rome Riddle led the Devils with 166 yards and two scores, covering 14 and 39 yards. Trevor Mayle had 136 yards rushing and 83 passing yards, including a 51-yard scoring toss, all in the first half. He got hurt late in the second quarter and did not return.
Defensively for Madonna, Kaczmarek had an interception, Tyler Dillon and Eli Kimberland each had a sack, Connor Lancaster recovered a fumble, Aiden Cunninham had two tackles for loss, Chiodi had a TFL and Luke Wingett broke up a pass.
UP NEXT
The Blue Dons have their bye week next week to regroup before a trip to Lisbon on Oct. 16.