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Carrollton Squeaks by Madison In Overtime
Carrollton squeaked by Madison 36-34 in overtime in a game with many twists and turns in the playoff opener at Carrollton in front of a cold but large Hawks’ fan contingency.
The Hawks once trailed 28-16 in the second half, but bolted back. The Trojans scored initially in overtime, then the Hawks rebounded and scored and converted to take the win 36-34. Sophomore Hunter Flowers tossed for four touchdowns and 237 yards with two early interceptions.
The Hawks’ Byron Holmes carried for 111 yards on 24 carries with one score. Hunter Flowers connected with his cousin, Zach Flowers, with a key 69-yard pass play in the fourth quarter to turn the momentum around in the game.
Madison was a lot stronger than many expected, coming in with a 6-3 mark. The team has made significant progress in its first year of football at the high school in many years. The biggest plays of the game were done by Alex Bowker. Flowers passed 19 yards to Bowker to the 19, then Holmes scored on an 8-yard touchdown catch. The two-point conversion failed for the Hawks. Madison drove to the Hawks’ 22, then Carl Moore of Madison caught a pass, but was pushed out of bounds by Bowker at the 7.
When asked for comments after the game, Carrollton's coach Flowers said, "Two plays that come back to my mind is with only seconds left in the game and and Madison completes a big pass and senior Alex Boker pushed the kid out of bounds down there at about the five yard line and and that's Alex. He's put his heart and soul into Carrollton football as a senior and he just continues to do it. Some kids would have given up on that play and he pursued and knocked him out of bounds and we stopped them and forced this game into overtime. There was also that two point conversion there at the end. You know we tied it and we had to get it in or it was going to double overtime."
When asked about how good Madison was as a team, Flowers responded, "Now we know. Full athletes. They were just full athletes. You knew a couple of plays early into the game. A tip ball that they caught and scored and then a couple of those one on one plays. When you're that athletic a lot of times you can make those one on one plays. Yeah they are very athletic and we knew they were going to be."
Carrollton hosts Camp Point Central at 1 p.m. this coming Saturday in Carrollton for the second round of the playoffs. Camp Point defeated Calhoun in another playoff game on Saturday.
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