Bryan Station football cruises to district title win over Madison Central
Never mind that 0-3 start, now.
Bryan Station took those hard lessons to help build a team that dominated rival Madison Central with a 35-7 win at home Friday to claim the No. 22 Defenders’ second Class 6A, District 8 championship in three years.
Jeremiah Mundy-Lloyd carried the ball 33 times for 214 yards and two touchdowns, while Trenton Cutwright threw a pair of TDs to JT Haskins Jr. and ran for another as Bryan Station (6-3) controlled the contest offensively and defensively from the outset.
“We figured out our identity after our third loss to Scott County,” Bryan Station Coach Phillip Hawkins said. “Sometimes it takes a while to do that. We stuck to ‘This is our system. This is what we’re going to do.’ And they’ve gotten really good at it. … It’s turned us into a pretty good little football team.”
Haskins, a junior who has been a standout defensive back for the Defenders since his freshman year, has become a playmaker on offense as well and scored the game’s first two TDs on passes from Cutwright.
Haskins came back to the ball, outjumped his coverage and snatched Cutwright’s 35-yard TD pass on Bryan Station’s second drive of the game.
“He underthrew it, but we have a saying: ‘Just throw it up, I’ll go get it,’” Haskins said. “I trust him a lot and he trusts me a lot. He’s a really good quarterback and finds open receivers. That’s really it. We’ve got good communication.”
Cutwright threw a seed to Haskins on a quick slant from 9 yards out to give Bryan Station a 14-0 lead to start the second quarter.
But perhaps most impressive was the 17-play, 92-yard drive the Defenders made for its 21-0 lead with 16 seconds left until halftime. It was a series that could have come apart three times as Bryan Station had two potential scores called back due to penalties and Cutwright took a 7-yard sack with under a minute to play. He scored on the next play on a stunning 25-yard run.
“When you can sustain drives and run the ball like we can right now, it keeps the defense a little more fresh and it seems like the better the offense does, it feeds back on the defense and we’ve got them rolling the way we need to,” Hawkins said. “I was impressed with them.”
Bryan Station kept Madison Central out of the end zone until 3:02 was left in the third quarter when Parker Mullins caught a tipped pass from Hagan Harrison on a fourth-and-7 play from the 9-yard line.
Madison Central threatened again on its next series, but Brady Hensley’s attempt to stretch the ball out over the goal line was met by Nikalos Dixon, who helped force the fumble. Haskins recovered the ball for a touchback to end the threat.
“Our biggest time was spent basically stopping the run game,” Haskins said. “We watched a lot of film preparing for this moment and we just executed. We got our offense rolling and got our defense coming back together.”
Of its 244 total yards of offense, 150 came on Madison Central’s two third quarter drives as Bryan Station forced the Indians to punt on five of its first six possessions and intercepted the other.
“The defense has been awesome since I’ve been here,” said Hawkins, who is in his third season at Station. “Tonight they did what they needed to do and the offense was able to help them.”
Mundy-Lloyd didn’t play in losses to No. 2 Frederick Douglass and No. 10 Boyle County to start the season. But he and his offensive line are healthy now and are gashing opposing defenses. Mundy-Lloyd’s 200-yard game Friday followed back-to-back 100-yard games the last two weeks.
“We just practice and keep getting better,” Mundy-Lloyd said. “The offensive line, we’re great. Ever since we got our starters back, everything’s been going well. If we just keep grinding, we’re going to be good.”
The win avenges last season’s district title loss to Madison Central (7-2) when the crown was awarded in the second week of the playoffs. Thanks to a rule change for 2022, the Defenders take both the district crown now and home-field advantage for the first two rounds of the postseason. They will visit Paul Laurence Dunbar next week to end the regular season. The playoffs begin Nov. 4.
For Hawkins, six straight wins after three straight losses was all part of the plan, although he felt like he let their game against No. 19 Scott County slip away after holding a 20-0 lead at halftime.
“They needed to know what getting their butt kicked felt like in order to do it the right way,” Hawkins said. “We’re just going to put our heads down and get ready for Dunbar next week. And then whoever we play in the first round we’ll just handle our business.”
This story was originally published October 22, 2022 at 10:10 AM.
