ORLANDO, Fla. — The 2017 FHSAA State Football Championship weekend kicked off at Camping World Stadium in style with small town football leading off the way in the Class 1A State Championship game between Madison County Cowboys and the Blountstown Tigers.
The Cowboys came away with a 35-20 victory for the first state championship in a decade led by a solid ground game that gained over 320 yards and a defense that stifled the Tigers’ offense in the second half.
During pregame warm-ups, the best way to characterize the differences between the two teams would be done by using the number 40 — as in Madison County looked like they had forty more players, those players had better forty-yard-dash times, and that seemed to give the Cowboys a 40-point advantage on the scoreboard before the ball was even kicked off.
However, in the first half, Madison County came out of the gate looking flat, despite being the superiorly talented team and the program with a definite size advantage.
The Tigers’ defense played very well early on, swarming to the ball on every play, and not letting the Cowboys put together long drives. When they got beat, it was due to lapses in coverage deep down the field, which Cowboys quarterback Tre’ Adams was able to exploit. One of his two first-half touchdowns was a 39-yard pass to senior wide receiver Derrick Staten, who gained over 130 total yards on the day.
On the other side of the ball, Blountstown’s first-half offense was led by junior quarterback Trent Peacock.
Through two quarters, Peacock not only had an impact through the air, after scoring the game’s first touchdown on a 13-yard pass to Jamal Howard with 5:48 left in the first quarter, ut also had an impressive 66-yard touchdown run on a read-option keep with 8:58 left in the first half. He read the defensive end crashing, pulled the ball, and impressively outran the speedy Madison County secondary.
The Tigers added a field goal as the first half expired to take a 17-14 lead into the locker room, giving them momentum knowing they would receive the ball to start the second half.
At that point Madison County knew had been punched in the mouth, and how they responded in the second half of the game would determine the final outcome..
Jump-started by a big stop by the defense and a nice punt return by Derrick Staten, the Cowboys found the endzone off a short touchdown run by Treyon Henderson and went up 21-17 to start the second half.
However, Blountstown’s defense continued to put forth an effort to counteract their offense’s blunders.
Several times throughout the third quarter, the Tiger defense inherited terrible field position and still held Madison County to zero points. But in the end they could only hold up for so long though and eventually the Cowboy’s talent began to shine through on both sides of the ball.
At that point, the flood gates were slowly pried open.
The final pull away began in the later part of the third quarter and then continued in the fourth quarter on the back of Teryon Henderson’s second and third touchdown runs of the game.
Henderson broke for a 67-yard run to begin the fourth quarter, and then iced the game with a one-yard TD run with only 4:40 left.
Henderson was the clear impact player for the Cowboys, totaling a whopping 207 yards to go along with his three touchdowns.
While Blountstown played with heart and did everything they could to put up a fight as the game’s underdog, they were eventually worn down by Madison County’s offense, and the depth of the Cowboys was the deciding factor.
Scoring Summary
Blountstown 7;10;0;3 — 20
Madison County 7;7;7;14 — 35
1st Quarter
B — 5:48 — Jamal Howard 13 pass from Trent Peacock (James Shores kick)
M — 2:32 — Derrick Staten 27 pass from Tre Adams (Drew Herring kick)
2nd Quarter
B — 8:58 — Peacock 66 run (Shores kick)
M — 5:59 — Adam 1 run (Herring kick)
B — 0:00 — Shores 41 yard field goal
3rd Quarter
M — 9:28 — Treyon Henderson 1 run (Herring kick)
4th Quarter
M — 9:46 — Henderson 67 run (Herring kick)
B — 7:20 — Shores 40 field goal
M — 4:40 — Henderson 1 run (Herring kick)
