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Photos by Chris Todd
Story by Robert Wilson

Toby Collums said his Madison Central team didn’t play a complete game in his debut as the Jaguars coach in last week’s win over defending MHSAA Class 5A state champion West Jones. Collums got one in his second game.

Madison Central jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter and rolled to a 42-19 victory over Brandon Friday night in a battle of Metro Jackson Class 6A teams in Madison.

Madison Central improved to 2-0 while Brandon dropped to 0-2. Junior quarterback Vic Sutton ran for the first of his three touchdowns and junior running back Deandre Pullen ran for another TD to give Madison Central a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. Sutton connected with senior tight end Blake Gunter for a 56-yard pass play to the Brandon 1 before Sutton ran for the TD. Brandon battled back to pull within 14-13 in the second quarter when sophomore quarterback Landon Varnes completed an 18-yard TD pass to junior wide receiver Lester Miller and junior running back Jarvin Durr ran for a 9-yard TD. before Sutton ran for his second TD on a 12-yarder for a 21-13 Madison Central halftime lead.

Madison Central pulled away in the second half with two TD runs by senior running back Robert Dumas Jr. and one by Sutton. Dumas had 23 carries for 149 yards and three TDs. Pullen had 12 carries for 102 yards and one TD. Madison Central grinded out 336 rushing yards.

“It was a 100 percent better than last week. We got off to another good start, they gained the momentum for a while, but took it back over in the second half,” said Collums, who came to Madison after six seasons at Northwest Rankin, the last one when he was named the Priority One Bank/Mississippi Scoreboard Metro Jackson Coach of the Year after taking the Cougars to a huge turnaround and winning nine games and the first second-round playoff victory in school history.

“We were able to control the line of scrimmage. We had more than 300 yards rushing. And our defensive line played well. We lost one of our best defensive players pretty early in the game in C.J. Barney, but the other guys stepped and played well. And Vic did a great job getting big first downs, Robert Dumas ran well and our offensive front had a good game.”

“Madison Central is a great team. Our kids fought really hard,” said first-year Brandon coach Sam Williams, who came from Ridgeland where he led the Titans to a 10-3 record and the Class 5A semifinals in his only season there. Williams led Pelahatchie to the Class 2A playoffs each of his three seasons there. Williams was an assistant at Northwest Rankin, the last two years under Collums.

“We battled back and had cut it to 9 with 5 minutes left and the ball in hand. We lost a fumble on a strip sack on first down at midfield and it went downhill from there on the scoreboard. We have to continue to grow up and find a way to attack our deficiencies. We are not going to be fun to deal with in a few weeks.”