Ground Control

By Shane Mettlen

Published: October 9, 2008

Madison County heads into tonight’s game against Eastern View with an unblemished record and the No. 4 ranking in the VHSL Division 2 power polls, thanks in large part to a dynamic tailback tandem. The Cyclones are 3-2, but just a couple of plays away from also being unbeaten, and have relied heavily on their own electrifying running back.

Both teams hope their rushing attack proves most potent when they meet at Cyclone Stadium. Devon Boone and Logan Terrell have combined to rush for 994 yards so far this season with Boone averaging 103 yards per game. While the Mountaineers have shared the load and pounded the ball up the middle, Eastern View’s Stevie Strother has racked up 869 yards rushing on his own through five games and is a threat to score anytime he gets to the outside.

“If we go out and do what we’ve been practicing all week and stop the run up the middle I think we’ll be alright,” EVHS defensive end Heath Brown said. “We’ve been working hard all week and we need keep it up.”

Brown returns to the Eastern View lineup after serving a two-game suspension and the Cyclones will likely need him to stop the Mountaineers, who balance the running game with steady play from quarterback Will Taylor, who is a threat to throw the ball.

“Madison is a good football team,” EVHS coach Greg Hatfield said. “Both their backs are great runners and the quarter-back doesn’t have a great arm, but he’s very accurate. He can keep you very honest with the pass and keep you from putting everybody in the box.”

The Cyclones weren’t the only ones that spent the week trying to figure out how to stop the run. The Mountaineers’ defense hasn’t allowed more than 14 points in any game this season and teams are averaging just 8.4 points per game against them.

But Madison coach Stuart Dean thinks his best defense might be a methodical offense, which would keep Strother and Cyclones offense off the field.

“Defensively, we’ve got to win the battle on the line of scrim-mage,” Dean told the Daily Progress in Charlottesville. “We feel like if we can have success, we’ve got to stop [Stevie Strother] and contain him. On offense we’re hoping to do some of the same things we’ve been doing. We want to run the ball and have some long drives and just move the ball both inside and outside. But we’ll just see how they play defense and see what we can take advantage of.”

With both teams off to a good start this season, this could be the first installment of a budding rivalry. Eastern View is coming off a heartbreaking loss to Caro-line and needs to rebound against Madison to avoid further damage to its playoff hopes in Division 4. The Mountaineers could boost its position in the playoff race with a victory over a larger school.

Then there is the proximity of the schools from neighboring counties.

“We have a lot of people on the teams that know each other,” Brown said. “It’s going to be a very competitive game because we haven’t played each other in a long time and they are 5-0, so if we beat them our rep is going to be really high. I really think it could develop into a rivalry al-most as big as us and Culpeper.”

Shane Mettlen can be reached at 825-0771, ext. 127 or