The much anticipated football season for the Madison Pre-Clinic Dodgers began on a sun filled Saturday morning as the team traveled to Wharton to face the Jr. Knights.
Coach Sean O’Hearen did his best to ease all the pregame jitters his players were feeling as they went through their warm-ups, and after the coin toss, the Knights offense took the field. The Dodger defense was solid up the middle all day, lead by Mehki Crump, Anthony Contessa, Gabe Artiglere,Joey DeMarzo, Vincent Finelli, Robert Ferris and Justin Slabaugh. Finding it impossible to make any gain up the middle, the Knights called a sweep and took it around the end for the first of their four TD’s of the game.
The Dodger offense settled down after a shaky start and put together some fine running plays of their own, lead by Will Baisch at center, who also had a solo sack on the defensive side, and Ben Calao at QB. The offensive line showed some strength behind blocking by John Hanna, Nate McKenna, Thomas Packie, Mike Keller, Andrew Boyd, and Scotty Spelker. Anthony Contessa and Gabe Artiglere had long carries, while Chris Anderson did a sweep of his own late in the fourth for Madison TD, and Jared Barnes punched in the point after, making it a 26-7 final for Wharton.
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The young Dodgers have their home opener this Saturday 9/14 at 10am at the Madison Recreation Center, where they play host to Newton.
