Centralia lost the last two times to Monroe City by a combined six points but held the visiting Panthers to six points this time.

Class 2 No. 1 Centralia defeated Clarence Cannon Conference foe Monroe City 44-6 and went into halftime with a 22-0 lead. The Panthers ran for over 460 yards while Monroe City finished with 80 yards on the ground out of its 122 offensive yards.

Centralia (6-0, 3-0 CCC) scored its first touchdown with about two minutes left in the first quarter and didn’t let up from there. Head coach Tyler Forsee said this was especially the case on defense where the Panthers held the run-heavy Monroe City (3-3, 2-1 CCC) to about 80 rushing yards.

“I got outcoached last year, but we played particularly well on defense this week,” Forsee said. “We swarmed extremely well. For a team like that, that’s tough to do.”

While Centralia has known for years that Monroe City likes to eat time with its relentless running attack, stopping it is another matter. Both teams rushed for at least 240 yards in the prior two meetings.

“Our defensive line did a great job of owning the line of scrimmage,” Forsee said. “They did a great job of beating them off the punch, and our pad level was really good.”

Forsee said Monroe City scored its points on a touchdown pass, but its runners were kept out of the end zone. He said the Panthers were able to sack and pressure all-conference quarterback Wyatt DeGrave, who went 3-for-5 passing with 42 yards and -38 rushing yards.

“We were able to keep him in the pocket,” Forsee said. “He’s a very good player, and we were able to put some hands on him and rush him into scrambling in the backfield and not set up and throw.”

Layne Fitzsimmons and Louis Suddarth each led the Centralia defense with six tackles, Chris Brown had five tackles and one sack, and Charlie Robinson had five tackles and a half sack. 

Of course, Centralia’s rushing attack kept rolling with its fourth straight game over 400 yards, and it has more than 300 yards in all six games this year. It was led by Oliver Bohlmeyer’s 240 rushing yards and one touchdown. Cody Prater had over 70 yards and two touchdowns, and Louis Suddarth, Dax Deckerd and Cooper Gehring each had a touchdown.

“We played about as well as we’ve played all year,” Forsee said.

Centralia goes back on the road at conference foe Clark County (1-5) at 7 p.m. Friday. The Panthers are coming off a happy night at home where they celebrated Homecoming and Senior Night. Forsee said the night even had a memorable start.

“We had a helicopter drop the game ball down,” Forsee said. “It was wild. I didn’t know all that was going on to be honest with you. We’re coming out of the locker room, and I was like, ‘What the heck is going on out there.’”