Photo by Andrew Grimm Cameron’s Cole Burkett races away from the defense during Tuesday’s game against Madonna.

WEIRTON — Madonna coach Dan Rovira was happy with the way his team kept fighting down three scores in the second half, battling back within four points in the fourth quarter.

However, he also would have liked for his Blue Dons not to have dug such a big hole, as Cameron had an answer to stop the Blue Dons building momentum and added a couple key, late touchdowns to pull away for a 38-20 victory in the battle of top-five, Class A unbeatens Tuesday at Jimmy Carey Stadium.

“We fought back, but we have to fight the whole game,” Rovira said. “We came out flat after halftime.

“We had four freshmen out there and 16 guys at the end of the game, I’m proud of them. We were within four with under six minutes to against a good football team. I can’t be mad about that.

“I’m mad about the penalties and stuff like that, but not mad about the effort. We fought, I just wish we would have fought a little sooner.”

Cameron, now 4-0, came into the game second in the Class A standings, while Madonna entered tied for third and falls to 4-1.

“It’s a tough situation coming to play a good team like this who is undefeated, they’re not used to losing and we’re not used to losing, you know it’s going to tough,” Cameron coach Tim Brown said. “We wanted to play a whole lot cleaner than we did.

“I thought we got stronger and stronger late in the game.”

After leading 8-6 at halftime following a sloppy, penalty filled first half, the Dragons opened up a 24-6 lead with a couple of early third quarter scores.

Madonna got a couple of stops on defense and put the ball in the endzone twice themselves, pulling back within 24-20 with 5:44 to go, but on the next play from scrimmage Cameron’s Isaac Ball went 54 yards through the Madonna defense to stun the Blue Dons and silence the crowd.

He added another score, taking a screen pass 36 yards to the house with 4:36 to go to squash any hopes Madonna still had.

“It was great to get that score,” Brown said. “(Madonna) made some adjustments, give them credit. They changed their defense about three or four times. It took us a minute to figure it out. Our coaches did a great job.

“I thought the kids did a great job of rallying and getting it done after it was close.”

Neither team scored in the first quarter, though Cameron had two touchdowns taken off the board by holding penalties on its opening drive and eventually had to punt.

Madonna opened the scoring when Santino Arlia (35 0f 63 for 286 yards) fired his first of three scores to Michael Burdine, who later left the game with an injury, to cap a 15-play drive.

The Dragons, who entered the week second in the Class A standings and improved to 4-0, answered with a 16-yard run by Colson Wichterman, a conversion pass giving them the lead at the break.

After Dragons TDs by Ball and Cole Burkett in the third, Arlia hit Evan Quering late in the third for a score, then connected with Mason Thompson midway through the fourth to cut the deficit to four.

That was as close as it would get, though.

Madonna sophomore Jonah McKay had a breakout night in the loss, finishing with 13 catches for 91 yards.

A LOT OF PENALTIES

Cameron racked up 125 yards in penalties in the game, 70 of which and an ejection came in the first quarter.

“We had a lot of penalties early and a lot of self-iflicted wounds early,” Brown said. “I told the kids they had to focus and get by some of those negatives things and go to the next play. I thought our kids did a good job of gathering themselves.”

After a combined four personal fouls in the opening quarter, the officials brought players from both sides together and urged them to calm down.

Madonna’s Trey Kush was ejected for two unsportsmanlike penalties in the third quarter.

“I’m disappointed in the way we acted, not all of them, but some,” Rovira said. “That’s not what we want to do with this program.”

UP NEXT

Cameron: Has a quick turnaround to battle Morgantown Trinity Christian on Friday night.

Madonna: Has its bye week before traveling to Toronto.