Football Looks to Start 2-0 vs. Kittatinny on Friday

The Madison High School football team will look to secure its second victory in as many games this season as it heads to face the Cougars of Kittatinny Regional High School on Friday afternoon in Hampton.

Kittatinny (0-1) lost 21-0 at historically-tough Lenape Valley last week, but the Dodgers–winners of the 2009 matchup against the Cougars–aren't looking past this game.

"We expect a tough game," Madison captain and wide receiver Aaron Fant said on Monday. "They're a bunch of tough kids so we should expect a lot of the same that we got last week. They're going to come out and want to beat us, especially because we beat them last year."

After stopping Wallkill Valley 24-14 last Saturday and looking strong for much of contest, the Dodgers are hoping to get a lot of the same production in their second Northwest Jersey-Freedom Divisional game.

"Our offensive line played really well last week and we expect to see the same thing this week," quarterback Matt McHale said. "Our running backs will have to run and follow them."

Head coach Chris Kubik agrees with his quarterback saying, "Their (defense) is big up front and tough to move. I see them as a physical team, so we're going to have to move them off the line.

"I hope (we can run the ball). That's the game plan. Week-in, week-out, our job is to run the ball. We've got to stop the run and be able to run the ball ourselves."

Madison didn't come out of the gates very fast against Wallkill Valley and everyone is counting on the Dodgers to fix that this week.

"Hopefully we're going to be a lot more prepared and a lot more focused so that we can avoid what happened last week," Fant said, speaking about Madison spotting Wallkill Valley 11 points in the first quarter last week. "I don't know if we were too hyped up or a little nervous but this week we definitely need to come out a lot better."

If Madison plans on stopping the Cougars rushing attack this weekend, they'll have to get the same quality production from the linebacking corps that they saw last week.

"That's how our defense is made, it's built around (the linebackers)," Kubik said. "That's the nature of the position and it just so happens that we have four real good ones. It's been really helpful for us and we just hope that they continue to get better."

It's clear that Madison is focused on starting the season 2-0 and they're prepared for a hardnosed game.

"We're preparing for them like we do every other team," McHale said. "We know it's going to be a tough game."

Kickoff on Friday is set for 3:30 p.m. at Kittatinny Regional.