Leps Suffer Costly Loss to Madisonville

La Grange forced five turnovers to keep themselves in the game, but couldn’t stop the Madisonville running attack as the Mustangs beat the Leps 52-35 in the district opener for both teams.

This loss proved costly in more ways than one for La Grange as standout senior lineman and captain Oliver Gunn suffered a season-ending knee injury in the game.

“He’s a great young man, a great leader, a great football player for our team. I hate it for him,” said La Grange head football coach Kyle Cooper. “I thought our kids fought back. Offense picked it up as the game went on ... Madisonville does a heck of a job up front, tough scheme. I didn’t get our guys in the right positions.”

Madisonville didn’t gain a single yard through the air (0-for-4 passing with Dwodney Thompson returning the Mustangs’ first pass attempt of the game 12 yards for a touchdown), but the Mustangs didn’t need that passing game as they rushed for 540 yards.

That attack was led by senior Jaden Simpson to carried the ball 28 times for 396 yards and five touchdowns (including four in the second half). Madisonville’s Tristan Whaley ran for 122 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and the senior also snagged a pair of second half interceptions. La Grange also proved great at takeaways Friday. In addition to that Thompson interception, he also caused and recovered a fumble. Oliver Gunn, Graham Youens and Casen Conrad also recovered fumbles for the Leps in this one.

“We came out with a great start,” said Youens, who had a fumble recovery on Madisonville’s first offensive play of the game. “Wish things could have gotten better from there ... we just have to keep working. Keep our heads up.”

This game appeared to be headed La Grange’s way early as they opened up a 15-2 lead.

Thompson started the scoring with that interception return but Madisonville’s Konnor Greer was able to return the ensuring extra point try for 70 yards for two points.

The Leps got those two points back when Chris Supak tackled the Madisonville quarterback in the end zone for a safety.

Then with 5:05 left in the second quarter Gunn recovered a Mustangs fumble and one play later Dillan Johnson rushed in for a 25 yard touchdown.

But up 15-2, things went south in a hurry for the Leps. Gunn was injured with three minutes left in the half and on the very next play Whaley ran for a 74-yard touchdown, and the extra point gave the Mustangs a 16-15 lead. That’s how it would stay going into halftime before the speedy Whaley scored again on a 46-yarder to put Madisonville up 23-15.

La Grange however fought back to retake the lead 28-23 following a seven-yard touchdown run by Klayton Michalka and a 27-yard touchdown pass from Eli Gillum to Thompson (a play set up by Thompson’s forced fumble and recovery one play previous).

“We lost Oliver and our team needed someone to step up and I felt like I stepped up,” Thompson said.

“Dwodney is just getting better and better on both sides of the ball,” Cooper said of his junior two-way player. “He was a big-time player for us tonight.”

But Madisonville would not be denied. Simpson scored on touchdown runs of 71 and 39 yards to give the Mustangs a 10-point lead.

La Grange’s final score came on a 86-yard touchdown pass from Gillum to Thompson with 9:18 left in the game. That trimmed the Madisonville lead to 38-35, but Simpson added two more touchdown runs of 80 and two yards to ice the game.

The Leps (Now 3-3 overall and 0-1 in district) ended up with a much more balanced offensive attack than the Mustangs. The Leps had 230 yard rushing, led by a 118-yard night from Gillum and 83 from Johnson.

Gillum also threw for 230 yards. Thompson caught nine passes for 181 yards.

Now La Grange turns its attention to Bellville (4-2 overall and 1-0 in district), which is coming off a 35-20 upset over a previously unbeaten Sealy team which had been the No. 4-ranked team in the state in Division II-4A. La Grange hosts the Brahmas at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Leopard Stadium.

“It’s a tough district, you don’t want to go down 1-0 but that’s where we are at,” Cooper said. “You go back to work, battle. They have heart and we’ll battle back and get better from this one.”