LEXINGTON — Markale Martin and the Minutemen kept their championship hopes alive.
Martin took a screen pass from quarterback Joe Caudill 33 yards for a touchdown with just 12 seconds remaining as Lexington thwarted Madison’s upset bid with a 14-7 Ohio Cardinal Conference win on Senior Night.
Lex (5-4, 4-1) will play at Ashland (9-0, 5-0) next week for a piece of the OCC title. The Arrows clinched at least a share of the crown with a 24-14 win at Wooster on Friday.
It was the first touchdown of the season for Martin, a powerfully-built 5-foot-10, 200-pound junior running back.
“(The season) hasn’t been going the way I wanted offensively, but we’re in a spot to go for OCC champs. It’s where I wanted to be,” Martin said. “It feels so good to be out here winning. It’s kind of always been Lex vs. the world.”
Martin’s game-winning touchdown capped a 13-play, 78-yard drive that took more than five minutes off the fourth-quarter clock. The drive started at the Lexington 22 after the Rams (1-8, 1-4) turned the ball over on downs with 5:56 remaining.
“Our offense tonight was stagnant at times,” Lex coach Andrew Saris said. “Fortunately, we called that tailback screen at the right time and Markale Martin, I couldn’t ask for a better kid to score that touchdown.”
Madison took a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter when quarterback Cam Kuhn found Owen Wigton all alone behind the Lexington defense for a 66-yard touchdown.
Seven Allen returned the ensuing kickoff 56 yards to Madison’s 31-yard line. The Minutemen quickly marched to the Madison 1-yard line, where running back Camden Boozer punched it in on the first play of the second quarter to tie the score at 7-7.
It remained tied for the next 35-plus minutes before Martin rode to the rescue.
“The offensive staff was on the headset and they were saying (Madison) was bringing a lot of pressure,” Saris said. “They said we should go with the tailback screen. It was a beautiful call.”
The loss was another gut-punch for the snake-bitten Rams. Madison lost on a last-second field goal at West Holmes in Week 5 and suffered a heartbreaking 33-27 triple-overtime loss to Ashland the following week.
“They’ve shown a lot of heart all year, but they don’t want to hear that. They want see the scoreboard,” Madison coach Brent Besancon said. “It just seems like we’ve managed to be on the wrong end so many times.”
Saris was impressed with the Rams.
“(Besancon) has done so good over there. At one point I was just watching them play and hit and be physical and it was really impressive,” Saris said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that that program is going in the right direction.”
While it wasn’t their best effort, the Minutemen earned the right to play for a conference crown next week.
“Over the summer we put in so much work,” Martin said. “I have great confidence in these guys.”