George Rogers Clark High School football coach Oliver Lucas would like to see his team stop shooting itself in the foot and playing from behind early.

That didn’t work out in a 34-14 loss to Madison Central Friday night in Winchester. Instead, the Cardinals surrendered an interception on the first play from scrimmage when a pass was deflected off receiver Jadan Farris’s foot. That set up a short field for the Indians, who took advantage with a 6-0 lead.

“We keep spotting people points,” Lucas said. “You can’t spot good teams like that. That’s an outstanding offense and dfense — well balanced.”

The Indians built on that lead mostly thanks to big plays. They added an 81-yard strike on a screen pass on third-and-long to end the first quarter.

The Indians added a second quarter score to take a 20-0 lead at halftime.

Central got a 92-yard pass in the third quarter and a 41-yard score on a pass in the fourth quarter.

The GRC offense finally got rolling in the fourth, with two good looking drives, both ending with passing touchdowns from Pearce Nisbet. The first was a seven-yard pass to Nick Willoughby and the second a 10-yard strike to Farris Shakadiah.

“I’m proud of my kids,” Lucsa said. “We kept fighting.  We’ve been decimated by injuries, but we’re not going to whine, we’re going to keep playing and that’s what I like about our kids — they just kept coming and coming.”

GRC receovered a pair of fumbles. Will Marsilett got one in the second half. Austin Blair recovered one in the first half. Blair also had three tackles for a loss including a sack.

Jehdon Jenkins, Marucs Wiseman and George Anderson also made tackles in the backfield.

Nitavius Thomas rushed 18 times for 91 yards, including a long of 50 yards.

Nisbet finished 8-of-21 passing for 90 yards and two scores. Shakadih caught four passes for 58 yards. Aquavion Lewis caught an 18-yard pass in the second half.

“We’re capable,” Lucas said. “We’re very capable. The problem is we don’t have that home run hitter. Where them, if you give them the same play, he goes to the house, where with us, we’ve got to call the next play.

“And that’s OK, because that’s whoo we are. We’re going to get better. We’ve got young speed and talent coming up, so we’re going to get better.”

And while the Cards struggled at the start and finish district play 0-3, Lucas is feeling positive.

“I don’t like the loss,” he said. “But I like that our kids are doing things we can build on. We’re going to be a good team. We are a good team. We just have to the record to reflect it.”

The Cardinals fall to 4-5. They have a chance to get to .500 in their regular-season finale, next week’s trip to Bourbon County (6-3).

“We’ve got to show,” Lucas said. “All we can do is limp in. We’re going to focus on the first quarter – stop giving up the game early.”

Central improved to 5-4 on the year. The Indians return home next week to take on Bryan Station.