Prep football: West scores 'big win' in East rivalry series (with photos)

Dennis Semrau  —  9/20/2008 11:32 pm

Possibly one day, Tony Esealuka will return and talk to future Madison West Regent football players before they take the field for the 100th meeting against crosstown rival Madison East.

He will probably shake his head as he relates how it felt to have East quarterback Drew McAdams and his bevy of talented receivers manipulate their spread offense and tear apart the Regents' defense, passing for 413 yards and three touchdowns.

But Esealuka will also be able to delight the eager future Regents with tales of a scintillating running back named Leighton Settle, who finished with 273 yards rushing and five touchdowns, including a 93-yard scamper in the fourth quarter on a third-and-21 play call.

The 5-foot-10, 215-pound lineman, though, will probably save the best for last, explaining how he recovered a fumble on the West 15-yard line with 20 seconds to play to preserve a thrilling 36-34 victory over the Purgolders.

Will the 100th meeting be as good as Friday's 79th game in the storied series?

It certainly couldn't be much better than the latest installment in the rivalry that snapped a two-game East winning streak in the series and kept alive West's hopes for its first Big Eight Conference title since 2005.

"In recent years, the rivalry probably means less since Memorial is our official rival, and we share a stadium with them," Esealuka said. "But East versus West has been around more than 70 years so it's still a big deal."

Settle wasn't born and raised in Madison. But he still understands the significance of the victory.

"The last two years they beat us so this was a big win to get," said Settle, who finished with a workhorse-like 37 carries and scored at least one TD in each quarter Friday night. "We couldn't lose again to accomplish the goals we set like winning city, winning conference and going to the playoffs."

Settle got plenty of help from center Isaac Scott, guards James Bester and Trevor Sellers, tackles Steve Hoerning and Carl Corbett and tight ends Tim Neuman and Gus Griffin. The West offensive line helped the Regents amass 317 yards on 46 carries and keep East's big-play offense on the sidelines as much as possible.

"We were trying to guard against the big play. Everything we've seen, they'd pop these big plays," West coach Greg Valaskey said of East. "For the most part, we kept them in front.

"But they did such a good job of dinking and dunking. They sustained drives much longer than we thought we were going to let them and they were going to be able to do."

West (3-1) jumped out to an 8-0 first-quarter lead on Settle's 8-yard TD run and a safety. However the Regents were never able to get too comfortable.

East junior quarterback Drew McAdams and Jorjio Hopkins connected on a 14-yard TD pass in the first quarter. McAdams then added a 1-yard sneak for a TD to cap a six-play, 76-yard drive that took just 59 seconds and gave the Purgolders a 14-8 lead early in the second quarter.

But Settle added TD runs of 1-yard and 2-yards to stake West to a 22-14 halftime lead.

"He's a super player. He's the real deal," East coach Dennis Hill said of Settle. "He's a slippery runner. We were fortunate last year to keep him penned in. He didn't hurt us last year, but this year he obviously did. He's a heck of a runner.

"On many of the runs, he got the yardage on his own. We had him walled in but he got yardage. He's a heck of a back."

McAdams and Hopkins connected on another TD pass-play, this one from 15 yards to pull East within 22-20 nearly three minutes into the second half.

Settle countered with a 5-yard TD run, that was set up by a 53-yard interception return by Trevor Sellers. McAdams, though, brought East back within two points again with a 1-yard TD dive to set the stage for the game-breaker.

On West's next series, a pair of penalties helped the Regents dig themselves a third-and-21 hole on their own 7-yard line.

But Settle stunned East with a 93-yard TD scamper on a draw play that gave the Regents a little bit of breathing room.

"We got caught blitzing on that play and actually blitzed past it," Hill said. "If you put the ball in the hands of a dangerous player like that, bad things happen. That's lights out."

East pulled within 36-34 with 4:31 left when McAdams and Tyler Kubicek connected on an 18-yard TD pass. After Nick George intercepted a pass two plays later, the Purgolders were set to take the lead when Kubicek attempted a 26-yard field goal with 2:41 left to play.

But the kick sailed wide left, and the Regents were able to stymie East the rest of the way.

"East was awesome," Valaskey said. "They had us schooled all night. But in the end, our defense did make some big plays for us. They're feeling like they gave up a lot of yards, and they did, but they didn't hang their heads at the end, and they did make some plays."

The Purgolders had one final opportunity to pull out a victory when a poor punt gave East the ball on the West 15 with 37 seconds left to play.

But West turned up the heat on defense, forcing McAdams into back-to-back fumbles, the later one recovered by Esealuka.

"I was disappointed I didn't get the first one. But once I got the second one," he said. "I wasn't going to let it go. Everyone on the field probably heard me. I was shouting, 'West house' probably 15 times, I was so excited. I didn't want to let go of the ball. No one was going to take it from me. I was going to die with that ball."

Or at least live to talk about it to a group of future Regents some day.

Dennis Semrau  —  9/20/2008 11:32 pm