Madison defense earns its third shutout of the season, downing Skyline 21-0

IDAHO FALLS – Raise your hand if you’ve heard it before.

“Defense wins championships!”

Yeah, not exactly original.

But maybe there is some truth to the overused cliché. Maybe defense can at least win a game, and maybe another, and another.

Madison is hoping both can be true.

The Bobcats earned their third shutout of the season on Friday night, downing Skyline 21-0.

Skyline had averaged 32 points in its first three games, but after getting shut down and scoring just six points in a loss at Thunder Ridge last week, the Madison defense took it a step further.

“We love playing defense,” said Madison defensive back Easton Holloway, who had a pick in Friday’s game.

Even before the season, Bobcat coach Matt Pancheri said he liked what he saw on the defensive side of the ball.

“I’m not surprised,” he said on Friday. “We’re good on defense. The one thing that does surprise me is how well we hold up under duress. It seems that the shorter the field gets, the better we play.”

That’s even more important to a Bobcat team that lost QB Micah Dougherty to a season-ending hip injury in their third game.

Brennen Dredge and Jett Walker shared time at quarterback on Friday.

After a scoreless first half, Dredge scored on a 72-yard touchdown run to put Madison up 7-0.

Walker tossed a touchdown pass in the fourth, and Dredge added his second score of the night in the closing minute of the game.

The Grizzlies tried everything to get their offense moving, including converting two fake punts, but they couldn’t find the end zone.

“I think all of us have been friends since we were little and we’re just out there having fun,” said Madison linebacker Grant Gugelman, crediting the team’s defensive line.

Madison (5-1), which lowered its points allowed average to 4.33, has a bye next week before closing the regular season with three 6A High Country Conference games, beginning with an Oct. 9 game against Highland.

Skyline (3-2) jumps back into conference play next week after the two nonconference losses to 6A teams.

“The bottom line is you have to make plays when you have a chance to make plays,” Skyline coach Scott Berger said, noting the team is still 3-0 in conference play.

“When it counted we didn’t make a couple of tackles that we needed to make, an we didn’t make couple of catches and a couple of runs that we needed to make.”