Centralia played an ideal game before districts next week.

The state No. 5 Panthers won 20-17 on Friday at Kirksville (4-5) in a game that was contested to the end in the final game before districts. Centralia (8-1) earns the No. 2 seed in a stacked Class 2 District 5 field, hosting Versailles (0-9) at 7 p.m. Friday before a potential home game against state No. 2 Warsaw (9-0).

Head coach Tyler Forsee said Kirksville had all three timeouts with about a minute and a half left so Centralia had to play all four quarters. The Panthers hadn’t scored less than 30 points in a game since their 26-14 first week victory against Mexico and have logged five 40-point games this season.

“It’s big to get battle-tested and get four quarters of football under you to get in game shape,” Forsee said. “We had to face a little adversity this week. That’s big moving forward.”

Centralia did score on its first play from scrimmage on a 75-yard touchdown run by Ethan Ross and then Chase Kempker ran for a 64-yard touchdown on its third play on its second drive. Ross finished with 92 rushing yards on 11 carries, Kempker ran for 85 yards on five carries, and Rex Bryson had 86 rushing yards and one touchdown on 10 carries.

Forsee said Centralia had to find a way to “keep the ball moving and keep the clock going” after that. The Panthers finished with 278 total yards — all on the ground — for their first week under 300 total yards. He said Kirksville has big players on defense, including a lineman who is going to Kansas State. 

“They’ve got some big bodies up front,” Forsee said. “He’s a hard guy to move, and he singlehandedly took away a few of our big plays. We had to go to Plan B on a few things.” 

Oliver Bohlmeyer led the defense with 12 tackles, Ashton Price had seven tackles, and Louis Suddarth and Anthony Ford each had five tackles.