Madison quarterback Jason Gastrock threw three touchdown passes and ran for one against McLean on Oct. 24. Photo by Craig Sterbutzel.
Madison quarterback Jason Gastrock scrambled to his left, jumped in the air and floated a pass toward receiver Jordan Ebersole, who was standing in the end zone.
Ebersole made the catch near the sideline and was promptly blasted my a McLean defender and knocked to the ground.
“I saw the guy coming out of the corner of my eye,” Ebersole said. “I’ve been taught that you’re going to get hit anyway, so you might as well catch it.”
Ebersole took the hit, held on to the ball and scored a 4-yard touchdown. Likely needing a four-game winning streak to earn a playoff spot, Ebersole and the Warhawks played as if they weren’t ready for their postseason dreams to end.
The Madison football team thumped McLean 40-0 on Oct. 24 at Madison High School. The Warhawks dominated from start to finish, building a 27-0 halftime lead. Madison outscored its last two opponents 93-0 and likely needs to win its last two games to reach the postseason despite a 2-4 start.
“We’re in playoff mode,” Madison head coach Lenny Schultz said. “That was our goal: to turn this program around in a hurry and make the playoffs. We know we have to win out to do that.”
THE WARHAWKS took the next step toward the postseason with strong performances on both sides of the ball against the Highlanders. On offense, Madison scored six touchdowns and produced the team’s second-highest point total of the season. Gastrock connected with Ebersole for three touchdown passes.
“It just seemed like,” Gastrock said, “he was open the entire time.”
Gastrock threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Ebersole with 3:25 remaining in the first half, giving Madison a 20-0 lead. He also found No. 14 for a 27-yard score with 1:50 left in the third quarter, extending the Warhawks’ advantage to 33-0.
Ebersole had eight catches for 75 yards.
“I feel like they played great together tonight,” Schultz said about Gastrock and Ebersole. “They’re connecting.”
Nate Williams also had a big night catching passes, finishing with 12 receptions for 80 yards.
“Nate’s been consistent all year making plays,” Schultz said. “We knew Jordan could do it [too]. … If they want to bracket Nate, then we’ll go to Jordan.”
Gastrock completed 26 of 31 passes for 210 yards.
“He’s coming into his own,” Schultz said. “He’s leading the team in practice [and] he’s developing into a good young quarterback.”
Gastrock also made things happen with his legs, keeping plays alive by scrambling or taking off down field. He rushed for 51 yards and a touchdown on seven carries.
“I definitely had a better running game than I have in the past,” Gastrock said. “I don’t really consider myself that much of a running quarterback, but I had some good plays today.”
Sophomore running back Wiley Counts carried six times for 41 yards and a touchdown.
On defense, Madison recorded its second consecutive shutout and held McLean to 179 yards of offense.
During a 51-35 loss to Herndon on Oct. 2, McLean quarterback Brian Maffei set a state record for completions in a game with 42. On Friday, the Highlanders signal caller completed 18 of 36 passes for 140 yards and was intercepted once.
“A lot of it was pressure on the quarterback,” Madison linebacker Joe Koshuta said when asked about the Warhawks’ defensive success. “They run quick routes out on the field, so we had to get on the quarterback and get pressure.”
After a season-opening win over South Lakes, Madison dropped four of five, including a 16-14 loss to Oakton on Sept. 5 and a 7-3 defeat against Chantilly on Sept. 12. With a 2-4 record, the Warhawks responded with a 53-0 win against Thomas Jefferson on Oct. 17 and Friday’s shellacking of McLean.
Madison will close the regular season with road games against Langley (Oct. 31) and Marshall (Nov. 7).
Friday’s loss dropped McLean’s record to 4-4.
“This is not indicative of the team that we have over here,” head coach Shaun Blair said. “We could make a lot of excuses … [but] that would take credit away from [Madison]. They freakin’ came out and they laid it to us.”
MCLEAN ENTERED Friday’s contest averaging 27 points per game, but couldn’t get anything going on offense. The Highlanders’ previous low point total was 19 against Stone Bridge on Oct. 10.
McLean receiver Jordan Cole caught five passes for 52 yards, and Owen Pilewski had six receptions for 43 yards. Maffei and Tom Shue each had six carries for 15 yards.
“Give credit to [Madison],” Blair said. “They had a very good game plan. They made it very difficult to move the ball. Obviously, there were some instances where we didn’t execute, but they did a lot in order to cause that to happen.”
McLean will host Thomas Jefferson at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 31, and will travel to take on rival Langley at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 7.
“The beauty part of the whole thing is that we still control our own fate,” Blair said. “We win, we take care of business the next two weeks, [a] 6-4 [record] gets you in. We’re going to have to [travel in the playoffs], and that’s fine. We’ve had adversity all season, our backs are going to be against the wall, but we’ve been there before and, with the exception of tonight, we’ve come out on top. We like our chances.
“… You can’t allow them to beat you twice. How that happens is you dwell on it too long. We’re going to do our film, we’re going to do our corrections, we’re going to look at it as a team and we’re going to flush it fairly quickly because the season continues.”