Ardmore hung tough with Madison Academy most of the first half, but a touchdown right before halftime separated the two sides, and the Mustangs ran off in the second half for a 42-10 victory.

“Madison Academy is a really strong team,” Ardmore head coach P.J. Wright said. “It was no surprise from what we saw on film. They are very fast and very athletic. We had a hard time stopping them.”

Madison Academy had a 14-3 lead late in the second quarter, but Luke Nail threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Evan Brooks with just 38 seconds left in the half to put the Mustangs up 21-3.

“Anytime you score right before the half, it’s a huge momentum swing,” Wright said. “We came out in the second half, and it was our football to start the half. We failed to execute, and they ended up scoring again and the game gets away from you at that point.”

Madison Academy expanded the lead in the final seconds of the third quarter, when Nail hooked up with Brooks again for a score, this one from 15 yards out.

The Mustangs added two more scores in the fourth quarter on touchdown runs by Daniel Brent. The first one was a 16-yard run and the second was from 42 yards out.

Ardmore finally got its touchdown in the final minutes of the fourth quarter on an 8-yard scoring run by Chase Lay.

Lay was a bright spot for the Tigers, finishing the game with 161 yards on 35 carries.

Wright said even though the final score wound up being lopsided, he saw lots of positives from his team in the loss.

“Our kids competed right from the opening kickoff from the beginning to the end,” Wright said. “They never quit, and as many bad spots as we were put in, they kept responding. Two weeks ago we got beat by Scottsboro and we did not play a complete game. We actually kind of rolled over for them. In the Madison Academy game, we never quit, and I was proud of that.”

Ardmore’s other score came on a 46-yard field goal by Saul Rodriguez late in the first quarter. Madison Academy had two first quarter touchdowns, which came on a 4-yard run by Avery Seaton and a 60-yard pass from Nail to Kyle Minor.

Ardmore (3-2 overall, 1-2 Class 5A, Region 8) is off Friday night.