ASHLAND – Madison walked into Ashland’s Community Stadium on Friday with bad intentions after 11 consecutive losses to the Arrows.
On the strength of three back-breaking plays, the Rams spoiled Ashland’s Homecoming night and stomped out years of frustration.
The 21-7 victory – keyed by a pair of Camden Moysi interceptions and an onside-kick return for a touchdown by Daniel Norris – was the first for Madison on Ashland soil since 2005.
“We talked on our way over here and it’s been a really long time since we’ve won here,” second-year Rams head coach Kobi Johnson said. “We were like, ‘We’ve gotta put an end to that.’”
Madison (3-3 overall, 1-2 in the Ohio Cardinal Conference) has matched its best win total since going 5-5 in 2015. The Rams’ excitement was the inverse of the emotions on the Ashland sideline.
Following their 3-0 start, the Arrows dropped to 0-3 in OCC play for the first time since the league’s inception in 2003. It’s also the first time the program has lost three games in a row in five years.
“Like they say, the sun comes up the next day and you’ve gotta go back to work,” Ashland coach Scott Valentine said. “We’ve gotta figure out some things.
“We’ve got four games left … so there’s a lot of football left to play. We’ve just gotta get ourselves moving in the right direction.”
No play proved more crucial Friday than Norris’s pendulum-swinging return.
The Arrows earned a 7-6 advantage when quarterback Carson Graber hit receiver Killian O’Brien for a 5-yard score late in the second quarter. Layton Roop’s PAT was the difference in the game at that point.
Then, with 33 seconds to play before halftime and a few timeouts in their pocket, the Arrows tried to catch Madison off-guard with an onside kick.
Norris reeled in the bouncing ball, broke away from a few Arrows and scooted up the right side for a 64-yard score. Aiden Proctor’s 2-point run made it 14-7, and Ashland never recovered.
“That was a really heads-up play by (Norris),” Johnson said. “A lot of kids, they get in an awkward spot there when that onside kick’s coming their way.
“It was coming up short and he attacked it, made a great play on the ball and ended up taking it to the house.”
Valentine said the AHS staff went back and forth on whether to try the short kick, and he took the blame for the call.
“We had some timeouts and if we would get the ball, we were in striking distance and had just gotten momentum there,” he said. “But it went the opposite way.”
Ashland also had a pair of threatening drives thwarted by Moysi’s heroics.
A 13-play AHS drive into the Madison red zone in the second quarter ended when the senior picked off a tipped pass from Graber.
Then, midway through the third quarter – after a 40-yard kickoff return from Arrows senior Jeff Hickey to the Rams 10-yard line – Moysi pulled in a short Graber pass near the left sideline for another pick.
“Camden Moysi, a senior for us, has played a ton of football and he can read some stuff out there,” Johnson said.
Behind a breakout night running the ball from Zaydien Longboat (16 carries, 126 yards) – a junior who previously had just 10 yards on seven carries this season – Madison then marched 89 yards on 15 plays to go ahead 21-7.
Rams sophomore quarterback Carson Cook (6-of-15 passing for 61 yards) connected with Norris for a 7-yard score to finish it.
The drive chewed up nearly 9 minutes of clock, and instead of the Rams trying to break a 14-14 tie, they surged ahead 21-7 with less than 10 minutes to play.
Madison also had 58 yards, including a 13-yard opening-drive touchdown run, from Damarrion Lloyd that capped a 14-play drive. The Rams wound up with 231 yards on 40 carries as a squad.
Stopping the run continued to be an issue for the Arrows, who were allowing nearly 200 rush yards per game entering the night.
“They do a good job of moving the ball around and getting it to people,” Valentine said. “We knew when (Johnson) took over, with the staff he has, that they were gonna do a good job coaching.”
Ashland nearly made it 21-14 midway through the fourth quarter, but O’Brien narrowly had his foot out of bounds on a catch in the end zone on a fourth-down pass from Graber (22-of-41 passing for 211 yards).
It was another tough pill to swallow on a night of missed opportunities for the Arrows, who also had a 22-yard field-goal attempt blocked after their first possession of the game.
O’Brien (10 catches, 81 yards) surpassed 2,000 career receiving yards, and his touchdown was his 25th career receiving score – tying Chris Thomas for the AHS record in that category.
The Arrows also welcomed the return of senior running back Grayson Baith (6 carries, 25 yards) from injury, and got to see sophomore running back Hayden Reef (6 carries, 40 yards) in action for the first time in high school.
The speedster’s debut has been anticipated for years while he’s tried to work through multiple injuries since a flashy middle school career.
But Ashland was held to its fewest points in a game since 2023, clearly hindered by a few injuries on its line.
Proctor, Madison’s leading tackler coming into the night, made a variety of big hits from his linebacker position.
“We moved the ball, we just couldn’t get it in the end zone except for the one (first-half touchdown),” Valentine said.
Madison entered the game converting just 24 percent of its third downs for the season. But on each of their two scoring drives against Ashland, the Rams converted three third-down plays and one fourth-down play.
“The big thing was we just wanted to come out and compete for 48 minutes; we’ve really struggled to do that the last two weeks,” Johnson said.
“For our guys, to go through two tough losses to Wooster and West Holmes, then to put together a great week of practice and come out here and play the way they did – and battle against a good Ashland team – I was just really proud of them.”
Both teams will be on their home turf next week when they open up the October portions of their schedules.
Ashland will host Mansfield Senior (1-5, 1-2), which pulled off a late comeback Friday to beat Lexington (1-5, 1-2), 32-27. Madison will take on New Philadelphia (2-4, 2-1), which lost in OCC play for the first time Friday in a 17-10 defeat at Wooster (2-4, 2-1).
The biggest OCC showdown Friday night, meanwhile, came at West Holmes, where the Knights (4-2, 2-1) dropped a 56-35 shootout to Dover (4-2, 3-0). The Crimson Tornadoes are all alone at the top of the league standings.
(Photos by Tom Theodore)
