High School Football Preview: Union County at Madison County

Tonight, the Union County Fightin’ Tigers (9-1) will begin their postseason with a road game against the Madison County Cowboys (7-3).

Union County enters this game with the state’s leading passer, as junior QB Tyrus Cook has thrown for 3,115 yards, 34 touchdowns and nine interceptions. The Cowboy offense will be headed by senior QB Kentwan Daniels, who leads the team with 148.7 total yards per game.

Madison County could have an edge in this match up as Daniels beat the Tigers last season when he played quarterback for Hamilton County en route to the 2014 state finals.

However, Union County runs a fast offense that averages over 460 yards a game, so the Cowboys will need to be stout on defense if they plan on stopping the Tigers.

“I think it’s going to come down to who makes the least amount of mistakes.” Union County head coach Ronny Pruett said. “We’ve earned the right to be where we’re at and we just gotta go out and make the most of the opportunity.”

Union County’s only loss this season came by way of a 44-41 shootout on the road against Fort White, the eventual District 6 champions.

“It’s been a good season, you know, we lost one of our district games – so that kind of put us behind the eight ball,” Pruett said of this season. “We’re doing a lot of new things, a different offense than what people visually remember Union County with.”

The Tigers’ defense has given up 20.9 points per game this year, so they’ll need to focus on stopping Madison County’s dual-back threat, which features Patrick Brown and Teryon Henderson. Henderson and Brown have combined for over 1,600 rushing yards this season while adding 15 scores on the ground.

Pruett knows that Madison County is capable of making a deep postseason run.

“Well, we’ve become real familiar with them here since they moved down to our district. I know the tradition, the history that they’ve had in years past and it’s still pretty much the same thing – you’re gonna get a good football game out of them every Friday night. Good numbers, a lot of speed, a lot of size, so nothing’s really changed.”

With a win, Union County would advance to host Jefferson County or travel to Fort White while the Cowboys would play host to either school.