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Braga, Middleton sprint past Purgolders

Jason McMahon  —  8/30/2008 2:09 am

For a few minutes Friday night, it looked like a track meet was going to break out between the Middleton and Madison East football teams on the artificial turf at Otto Breitenbach Stadium.

But it turned out the Purgolders were off to a false start, and the Cardinals lapped their Big Eight Conference rivals 42-7 in the season opener for both teams.

Senior tailback Brooks Braga rushed for 130 yards and three touchdowns for the Cardinals, who scored 35 unanswered points to run away from East.

"We did not show up, and I'll take the blame for that," Purgolders coach Dennis Hill said. "We gotta work harder and get better. There were breakdowns all through our football team."

East's passing attack showed up early. After Middleton scored on the fourth play of the game with a 54-yard hookup between quarterback Alex Coyne and wide receiver Joe Kracht, Purgolders junior quarterback Drew McAdams marched his team down the field for the equalizer.

McAdams was 5-of-5 on the drive, ending with a 43-yard connection with junior wideout Marquis Mason. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Mason, back with the Purgolders after skipping his sophomore season to concentrate on basketball, hauled in McAdams' toss at the line of scrimmage, easily shed a tackler and sprinted down the sideline for the score.

East forced a Middleton punt, but Ryan Howard pinned the Purgolders at their own three. McAdams led East out of trouble, but was picked off by Justin Feist at the Cardinals' 39 and it was all downhill from there for the Purgolders.

Braga had a 30-yard run to key a six-play scoring drive, then had a 20-yard jaunt and a 30-yard TD scamper on the Cardinals' next trip down the field as Middleton took a 21-7 lead less than a minute into the second quarter.

"Our line opened up some huge holes tonight," Braga said. "The line deserves all the credit tonight. They played well the whole game, holes the whole game. It makes my job real easy when I can run through big holes."

David Ripp's 45-yard punt return set Middleton up at the East 20, and Braga cashed in with a seven-yard option run. Kracht gave the Cardinals a 35-7 lead with a 30-yard score on an end around with three minutes left in the half, and Middleton had another touchdown called back on a penalty before the break.

The Cardinals recovered McAdams' fumble at the East 5-yard line on the Purgolders' first possession of the second half, and two plays later Braga rumbled in for his third score and a 42-7 lead that led to a running clock the rest of the game. It took Middleton four snaps or less to score in each of the first three quarters.

After completing his first eight passes for 115 yards, McAdams went cold after Feist's interception. He was just 4-of-10 for 35 yards the rest of the half, and finished the game 21-of-34 for 217 yards.

"We were able to mix up some different looks, so we didn't have the same alignments all the time," Middleton coach Tim Simon said. "We were able to put a little bit more pressure on him in ways that we weren't able to do in the first couple series, and that probably made the difference."

McAdams and the Purgolders were also plagued by a number of dropped passes, though Hill was still pleased with his team's passing attack. Mason caught seven balls for 106 yards, and senior Jorjio Hopkins had seven receptions for 76 yards.

But East couldn't generate anything on the ground. The Purgolders finished with 31 yards on 18 carries, while the Braga-led Cardinal effort produced 217 rushing yards.

"We didn't stop the run. That was the most dominant glaring weakness that I thought we had out on the field," Hill said. "And we didn't run-block, and our runners were slow to the hole. So we've got work to do. We're going back to the blackboard."

The Cardinals took advantage of superb special teams play. Kicker Tom Heupenbecker was perfect on PATs, and put all but one of his kickoffs inside the 5-yard line. Middleton's coverage unit only allowed one Purgolder return past the East 20.

And Howard averaged 43 yards on his three punts, none of which were returned.

Middleton split its quarterbacking duties between Coyne, a left-handed senior, and junior Shane Adler. The duo alternated series throughout the game. Coyne had both of Middleton's pass completions, and also had a 1-yard sneak for a touchdown.

Jason McMahon  —  8/30/2008 2:09 am