Palmyra wasn’t what Centralia expected on Friday night, and the game took an unexpected turn.

Class 2 No. 1 Centralia fell behind 27-6 before storming ahead 42-27 in the third quarter and eventually winning 48-42 at Palmyra (5-3, 3-2 CCC). The Panthers’ quest for their first undefeated regular season since 2019 is still intact after Centralia (8-0, 5-0 CCC) scored 34 points in the second half, and Ethan Ross ran for 290 yards and five touchdowns on 17 carries.

Head coach Tyler Forsee said Palmyra has shown an ability to run the ball because Wyatt Augspurg ran for 303 yards in Week 5 against North Callaway. However, Centralia didn’t see that offense.

“I didn’t have enough people to cover the pass,” Forsee said. “We had our ears pinned back to stop the run. I was pretty confident that’s what they were going to try to do. They’re quarterback is a very good runner, and their running back is very dangerous as well. They just threw, threw and threw. Their kids made some great catches, and they found the holes in our zone coverage.”

Augspurg finished with 81 rushing yards while Kason Augsburg threw for 322 yards and three touchdowns on 20-for-35 passing and had 84 rushing yards. Forsee said Palmyra had the better first-half game plan, but the second half still had to be played. He said Centralia adjusted to Palmyra’s passing attack, and the offense got in rhythm.

For eight straight weeks, Centralia has rushed for at least 300 yards per game after finishing with 400 yards against Palmyra. And for the past two weeks, Ross has been quiet after playing two drives because of a concussion against Monroe City and missing last week at Clark County due to the injury. Before halftime, Forsee said a rare Centralia pass that Ross completed for 34 yards before running for a 26-yard touchdown to bring the halftime deficit to 27-14.

“It gave us a little momentum because it looked pretty bleak for a while,” Forsee said. “We didn’t tackle very well, and we didn’t block very well.”

Forsee said Oliver Bohlmeyer, who led the defense with 12 tackles ahead of Louis Suddarth’s 11 tackles, picked up the slack well with 219 rushing yards per game and eight touchdowns in last three weeks. Now Ross is back to put Centralia’s offense at full strength.

“I think he’s OK,” Forsee said. “It’s nice to have all the horses out of the stable.”

Forsee said Palmyra “beat us off the football” and were “ready to go sooner” on defense to help be more physical in the first half. He said Centralia was forced to punt four times after coming in with two punts all year, but he also said Centralia was more “physically dominant” in the second half.

Palmyra is the third conference team that Centralia has played that has averaged around 20 points allowed this season. The Panthers have managed to at least 40 points against Macon, Monroe City and Palmyra and now have South Shelby’s 20-point defensive average at 7 p.m. Friday at home.

“We always have a lot of tough teams in the conference and tough kids,” Forsee said. “We have to continue to fire off the ball. We need to get this win against South Shelby if we want to be conference champs and lock in the one seed for districts to get the bye. We’ve got to move forward and play better than what we did tonight.”