McPeek earns 100th career win as Frederick Douglass survives against Madison Central

Frederick Douglass head coach Nate McPeek came into Friday night with 99 career coaching wins. He had to sweat out the 100th.

The No. 14 Broncos (4-3) managed to fend off the No. 22 Madison Central Indians (4-3) in the KSR Game of the Week, sneaking out a 21-15 victory that was anything but easy. The score was 7-7 at halftime as both teams soaked up long possessions and relied heavily on their defenses. A huge defensive stop by Douglass with a few minutes left in the fourth quarter, followed up by a couple of key runs for first downs, put Madison Central away for good.

Usually stoic on the sidelines, McPeek, who also coached at Fairview (2008-13) and has been the Broncos’ full-time head coach since 2020, couldn’t help but smile ear-to-ear when his players celebrated win 100 with him in the postgame huddle.

“I’ve been a head coach for 12 years,” McPeek told KSR. “Any time you can get a hundred wins as a head coach, that’s special.”

“He’s the hardest worker,” Frederick Douglass junior running back Dakari Talbert, who found the end zone twice against Madison Central, said. “He’s the best leader I’ve ever seen with my own two eyes. It’s every day, consistent, and means something to him. For us to have a leader like that, it makes us want to do better each and every day.”

It was Talbert who led the charge for McPeek’s 100th win, too. A scoreless first quarter featured a lengthy opening drive from Madison Central that resulted in a 4th down stop by the Broncos. Douglass took over deep in its own territory and slowly marched down the field before Talbert found his way into the end zone early in the second quarter.

Madison Central, which had only thrown the ball 20 times on the season coming into the game, attempted to counter through the air. But a big pickup in the passing game ended in disaster as Douglass punched the ball loose, scooped it up, and ran the other way into plus territory. Madison Central’s defense would step up, though, forcing the Broncos to turn the ball over on downs. The Indians would stick to the ground this time, eating up a ton of clock once again before junior Corinthian Barnes would find paydirt to knot the score at 7-7 right before halftime.

The second half opened with Talbert tacking on his second and final touchdown, this one a 35-yard run up the middle to give Douglass a 14-7 lead. Incredibly shifty with quick feet, Talbert was a constant problem for the Madison Central defense throughout the night. He finished with 135 rushing yards on 17 carries and the two TDs.

“I think he’s a Mr. Football candidate nobody talks about much. He’s special,” McPeek said of Talbert. “He’s a Power 4 running back in my opinion. Some guys are missing the boat on him, I think.”

To open the half, Dakari Talbert breaks free on a 35-yard TD run for Douglass, his second score of the night.

Madison Central 7
Frederick Douglass 14

8:16 | 3rd Q pic.twitter.com/UNook93xze

— Zack Geoghegan (@ZGeogheganKSR) October 11, 2025

Madison Central would come up empty on the next possession, allowing Frederick Douglass senior Terry Carson to take a pass from freshman QB Jayden Guzman 25 yards for another score. Just like that, it was 21-7 Broncos.

Madison Central actually returned the following kickoff to the house, but an illegal block in the back nullified the big play. However, their break would come soon after. To start the fourth quarter, Madison Central senior Derek McElwee perfectly read a screen pass that he picked off and returned 86 yards for a momentum-shifting touchdown.

The Indians would then convert on a two-point conversion to make it just a 21-15 game. Their defense would give the offense a chance to take the lead late, but a failed 4th down attempt with 3:30 on the game clock officially put an end to the comeback attempt.

The win for Frederick Douglass marked its fourth in a row after a 0-3 start to the season. It’s no secret that McPeek does his best to craft the toughest possible schedule for the Broncos. The pain of losing three straight games to open the season stung, but he’s seeing the payoff of those struggles several weeks later.

“That was the first time in my career I started 0-3, as a player or a coach, my whole life,” McPeek said. “So it was definitely difficult for me, but I had to be a good leader.”