MADISON TOWNSHIP — The Rams remained unbeaten, but it wasn’t easy.
Randy Jamieson scored a pair of goals and Madison held on for a 4-2 Ohio Cardinal Conference win over crosstown rival Mansfield Senior at the Madison soccer complex.
The Rams (7-0, 2-0) led 2-0 at the half but the Tygers (3-4-1, 1-2-1) refused to go quietly. Senior High twice cut Madison’s lead to a single goal in the final 40 minutes before Carter Branham put it away for the Rams with a goal with 50 seconds remaining.
“We knew it wasn’t over at halftime,” Madison coach Tim Lord said. “They played well and …gave us more than we wanted.
“It was definitely a battle tonight.”
Madison’s Joey Walker broke the ice in the 15th minute before Jamieson scored the first of his two goals off an Ashton Taylor assist to make it 2-0 with 6:19 remaining in the first half.
The Tygers trimmed Madison’s lead to 2-1 with 25:40 remaining in the second half when Justin Crall sent a direct kick into the box, where Chase Cole shouldered a shot into the back of the net. Jamieson scored his second goal less than three minutes later off a Branham assist to make it 3-1, but Senior HIgh’s Aiden Henry scored an unassisted goal with 14:56 to play.
“I’m super proud of the boys,” Mansfield Senior coach Kris Stentz said. “In the past we’d go down and we wouldn’t come back. We’d kind of fall apart.
“To go down two and come back, I’m definitely proud of the boys. They stuck with it to the very end.”
Lord agreed.
“I’ll give it to Kris. He does a great job with those guys,” Lord said. “They played well and moved the ball well and gave it everything they had.”
Jamieson and his teammates knew they would have their hands full.
“Everybody in the OCC is tough competition,” Jamieson said. “We had to move the ball and play our game. We didn’t want to play their game.”