CLASS 1R STATE CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW: Hawthorne and Madison County meet once more for a title bout

Madison County Cowboys (Madison) (10-1) vs. Hawthorne (12-0)

WHEN: Thursday

WHERE: Ken Riley Field at Bragg Memorial Stadium, Tallahassee

KICKOFF: 8:00 p.m. ET

TICKETS: Ticketmaster.com ($17 prior to; $20 on game day)

TV/STREAM: Bally Sports Florida; Bally Sports app, Bally Sports+, BallySports.com

COACHES: Madison County – Price Harris (2nd year at Madison County, 11-5; 20th year overall, 129-88); Hawthorne– Cornelius Ingram, (9th year at Hawthorne, 84-19)

COACHES INTERVIEWS:

TOP PLAYERS: Madison County – Za’vion Bryant (QB, Sr.) 741 yards passing, six touchdowns, four interceptions, 456 yards rushing, seven touchdowns; Jason McDaniel (RB, Jr.) 816 yards rushing, 10 touchdowns; John Christian (RB, Sr.) 500 yards rushing, eight touchdowns; Ryshard Miller (RB, So.) 649 yards rushing, 12 touchdowns; Octavious Hodge (LB, Jr.) 86 tackles, five tackles for loss, one sacks, two interceptions, two fumble recoveries; Kemari Scurry (DL, Jr.) – 45 tackles, seven tackles for loss, one sacks, two quarterback hurries; Omarion Gentle (DL, Sr.) 36 tackles, five tackles for loss, three sacks, two quarterback hurries, one fumble recovery; Tre’vion Gillyard (DB, Sr.) 32 tackles, one tackle for loss, five interceptions, three pass deflections, one fumble recovery, one forced fumble; Sean Williams (DB, Jr.) 18 tackles, five interceptions, nine pass deflections. Hawthorne – CJ Ingram (QB, Jr.) 2,470 yards passing, 37 touchdowns, four interceptions, 268 yards rushing, six touchdowns; Keenon Johnson (RB, Jr.) 1,456 yards rushing, 16 touchdowns; Alvon Isaac (WR, Sr.) 45 receptions, 907 yards receiving, 17 touchdowns; Caleb Rollerson (WR, Sr.) 36 receptions, 768 yards receiving, 10 touchdowns; Andrew Zock (LB, Sr.) 131 tackles, 19 tackles for loss, five-and-a-half sacks, one interception, two fumble recoveries, seven forced fumbles; Nate Jennings (DB, Fr.) 29 tackles, three tackles for loss, three interceptions, two fumble recoveries; Naziy Gent (LB, Jr.) 92 tackles, 23 tackles for loss, five sacks, one interception, one fumble recovery, one forced fumble; Earick Williams III (DE, Sr.) 35 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, eight sacks, two forces fumbles; Demetri Perry (DE, Sr.) 60 tackles, 19 tackles for loss, five sacks, one interception

TEAM CAPTAINS: Madison County: John Christian (No. 1), Varian Terry (No. 6), Za’Vion Bryan (No. 4), Jason Andablo (No. 50); Hawthrone: CJ Ingram (No. 7), Andrew Zock (No. 0), Alvon Issac (No. 2)

MATCHUPS TO WATCH:

WR Alvon Issac (Hawthorne) vs. DB Tre’vion Gillyard (Madison County) – Issac, a USF commit has been explosive in the passing game for the Hornets and only needs 93 yards to surpass 1,000 yards for the season in the state championship game. It could be up to Gillyard who has been a defensive force for the Cowboys to keep Issac in check.

DL Omarion Gentle & DL Kemari Scurry (Madison County) vs. QB CJ Ingram (Hawthorne) – It make take not one but two defensive linemen to bring down Ingram a 6-6 athlete who plays even better basketball than football to keep Ingram from doing too much damage. Ingram currently has over a dozen offers, primarily from Group of Five schools at the moment.

RB Keenon Johnson vs. LB Octavious Hodge (Madison County) – Neither of these guys are top prospects, but they are the best of the best in their positions for their respective teams and Hodge is going to have to apply pressure on Johnson along with the rest of Cowboys teammates and bring him down to force Hawthorne into more passing situations.

OUTLOOK: Ahh, we have seen this story before as we have a rematch of the 2021 Class 1A state championship game on our hands. However, not much else is the same compared to that 13-12 game two years ago at Gene Cox Stadium. CJ Ingram was just a backup at that point on the team for Hawthorne along with a defensive lineman named Jalen Ruth causing havoc and the Cowboys had Mike Coe as the head coach. Now it is CJ Ingram who is the man under center for Hawthorne, while Price Harris is the head coach at Madison County, returning the Cowboys to the big game after a struggle of 3-6 last year that opened the door for Hawthorne to winning their first state championship. With that said, the Cowboys have been a resilient team that has seen a lot of adversity thrown its way this year with weather wiping out the first two games of the regular season that included Hurricane Idalia coming through and damaging Boot Hill Stadium badly. However, the resolve of Madison County never broke, and the community has been rallying around them as they get ready to appear in their 12th overall state championship game in program history. Hawthorne, a small community that almost lost their high school five years ago, is now appearing in their fourth consecutive state championship game. When looking at the talent, Madison County is working with a lot of home-grown talent and one that is not seeing the athletes receiving offers compared to the teams of Madison County from the late 1990s and early 2000s. As such they rely on everyone and will rely on some of the starters to play both ways. Hawthorne, which has benefited from a few transfers but still relies on talent from the Hawthorne community will not have to rely on as much on athletes having to go both ways. Overall, this game could go one of two ways and be a defensive battle like the 2021 matchup went, or this could be a game that stays close for a while but sees Hawthorne pulling away due to the athletes available on the roster compared to what the Cowboys have available.

PREDICTION: Hawthorne 37, Madison County 17