Askew sees silver lining in upset loss

San Antonio Madison came into this past Saturday's match-up with San Antonio MacArthur riding pretty high. The Mavericks were 3-0 and ranked No. 50 nationally in the RivalsHigh100. However, the game didn't go quite as they had planned.

Madison went into halftime trailing 20-3. They had not managed to gain even 100 yards of offense and did not appear to be the powerhouse they had been portrayed to be. Maverick wide receiver and Texas A&M commit Nate Askew says his team just did not seem focused.

"Man, I don't even know," said the 6-foot-4, 213-pound Askew. "Our offense wasn't clicking at all. Nothing was working at all. The running game and passing game were both just off.

"Receivers were running wide open and the quarterback couldn't make the throw. Other times, we receivers were dropping passes. I don't know; it was just like everybody was asleep out there."

However, they made the necessary halftime adjustments and came out to play in the second half. It was not quite enough, though, as MacArthur pulled the upset 34-30.

"Everybody just kind of woke up," said Askew. "We realized that they weren't going to lay down for us. They came to play. We just kind of picked it up. I guess it was too late. Well, it wasn't even too late. We just made a few bad plays at the end of the game that cost us the game."

Askew had five receptions for 117 yards and three touchdowns on the night, all coming in the second half. His final score came on a 38-yard pass with 1:10 left in the game that put the Mavericks up for the first time all night. However, it wouldn't last.

"I mean, I knew the game wasn't over with because a minute and 10 seconds is still a long time in football," Askew said. "We felt really good about things, though. We just didn't step up and get it done.

"It was the first play for them after I scored. They threw and 80-something yard bomb and that was it. They won the game on that. The emotions on each sideline turned really quickly."

Though he would have preferred to win the game, Askew does see a silver lining in the defeat.

"A loss isn't ever good," he said, "but this is something we sort of needed. We've never been ranked this high and it sort of went to our heads. Everybody has to learn sometime. We know that we can't just walk into a stadium and intimidate people with our ranking. We have to play our game the way we know how."

Madison's next game comes in two weeks against Smithson Valley, a team that defeated them 31-21 a year ago. While some of the team is seeking to avenge last year's loss, Askew says he prefers not to dwell on that.

"To our team, it's a bit of a revenge game," he said. "To me, though, it's a whole new year. You can't really trip on what happened last year. I mean, my sophomore year we beat them twice so coming into last year we were riding high. It's just a whole new year. You just expect something different every year and can't dwell on the past, good or bad."