MADISON — After back-to-back losses on the road, the Madison Area Memorial High School football team felt like it needed a spark. Back home at Rudman Field for homecoming, the Bulldogs played arguably their best game of the season thus far.

Madison jumped on Waterville early, pulling away in the first half for a 42-0 Big Ten Conference win. Madison is now 3-2, while Waterville is 1-4.

Madison entered the game coming off two losses, a close game at Belfast and a blowout at Winslow.

“We had two rough weeks in a row, and we worked hard this week. We just knew coming out we had to have energy, and we brought it tonight,” said junior Nick Morales, who scored three touchdowns and had 220 yards of offense (159 rushing, 61 receiving) for the Bulldogs.

Morales gave Madison a 7-0 early lead, capping the game’s first drive with a 2-yard touchdown run. Waterville marched into Madison territory, but the Purple Panthers’ drive ended when Steven Ouelette intercepted a Cody Pellerin pass and returned it 71 yards for a touchdown and a 14-0 Madison lead with 7:37 left in the first quarter.

Morales scored on a 73-yard run with 49.6 seconds left in the first quarter to push the Bulldogs’ lead to 21-0.

“I’ve said it all year, that we don’t start going unless our line starts going. I think our line is one of the top in the league, probably one of the top in the state. I have great respect for them, and I told them if they move, I move,” Morales said.

Waterville was forced to punt three times in the second quarter, and Madison capitalized on good field position with two more touchdowns. On third down and 13 from his own 39, Madison quarterback Chase Malloy rolled to his right, then scrambled to his left to avoid pressure before finding Morales for a 61-yard touchdown pass with 10:05 left in the first half. Briar Edgerly’s 4-yard touchdown run with 5:47 left in the second quarter gave Madison a 35-0 halftime lead.

Mitch Jarvais caught a 44-yard touchdown pass from Malloy with 7:25 left in the third quarter to cap the scoring.

“It’s been a rough couple of weeks. Not taking away anything from Belfast, but we kind of gave them a little bit of that game, and last week (at Winslow) was a little tough on team morale,” Madison coach Scott Franzose said. “We did a good job regrouping this week. We got back to work. It was just the type of game we were looking for, a big win at homecoming to get us back on track for the playoffs.”

Devon Begin led Waterville with 36 yards on nine carries.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM

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