Last year’s 3A matchup featured an American Heritage team with a roster stocked with Division 1 talent and a young talented country boy crew from Madison County.  Madison was clearly outmatched and the 30-3 score showed that.  This year’s featured another division one talent stocked private school and a seasoned Madison team who learned some valuable lessons from their previous encounter.  Madison fought hard against a team many thought to be the top team in Florida and has received national recognition but at the end they did not have the horses to upset the University Suns as they lost a close one that went down to the final minute 24-17.

The Madison Cowboys also affectionately known as “The Cur Dogs” were definitely up to the task early on.  After fumbling on its opening drive they were able to force the vaunted Suns offense to a 3 and out after stuffing Jordan Scarlett (18 73 1TD) who was mostly bottled up the whole game.  After a few 1^st down runs by Deonshay Wells and Keyon Bruton Madison did what they were not able to do the previous state title game and that was open up the passing game. QB D.J. McKnight completely a couple passes to WR Tre Arnold to put the Cur Dogs into scoring position where they would get a field goal.  With the momentum and some fierce defensive play Madison opened up a 17-0 lead in the 2^nd quarter.  On the 1^st scoring drive Bruton was key rushing 10 times for 51 yards and the 1 yard TD.  Next Chris O’Hara recovered a D.J. Taylor fumble to give Madison the ball in University Territory and they would capitalize with a 40 yard touchdown pass to Shedrick Williams on a trick play where it appeared he was going of the field.  With things looking grim for University they showed why they are considered one of the best teams in the state if not the nation as they began their comeback.  Mike White completed 5 of 7 passes including a big 31 yarder to Emanuel Soto on some broken coverage.  His final pass was a 15 yard touchdown pass to D.J. Taylor which would draw them to within 7 as Madison led at the half 17-10.

In the 3^rd all world sophomore running back Scarlett finally got going from 5 carries for 9 yards to 10 carries for 42 yards and a 14 yard touchdown which pulled the Suns to within 1 point after a missed extra point.  The Cowboy offense had issues getting going in the 3^rd with the defensive adjustments made in the halftime by the Suns staff.  As it happens the Cowboys were shutout in the 2^nd half even though they were in scoring distance with the ability to tie the game up after a 4^th and 17 conversions fell one yard short near the goal line.  Scarlett collected another 44 yards in the 4^th quarter which helped the Suns ice the game.  Also playing big the whole game was Suns QB Mike White who was 21-31 for 282 yards and 2 TD’s.  Bruton ended the game with 118 yards on 30 carries for the Cowboys and QB DJ McKnight had an un-characteristic 12 of 17 completions and 132 yards plus 1 TD.  Key to the success of University in the 2^nd half was SR LB Skai Moore who was all over the field and made 14 tackles and 1 sack.

With University winning 24-17 and finishing the season 11-0 they may have entrenched themselves on top of all Florida all classifications polls.  Madison finished the season 11-2 and certainly should be considered one of the best in the state as well.  Their only other loss was to State 6A finalist Gainesville.