Centralia’s Stephens qualifies for third straight state golf meet

Tess Stephens is returning to a state golf course.

The Centralia senior shot a 105, or 33-over par, to finish in a tie for 15th out of 66 golfers and snag one of the final spots of the Class 2 District 2 tournament hosted Monday at Eldon Golf Club. Stephens, who will be playing in her third straight state meet, will play a different course this year from Silo Ridge in Bolivar last year as the 2023 Class 2 tournament runs Oct. 16-17 at Twin Hills Golf and Country Club in Joplin. 

Stephens was close to having a teammate join her like a year ago as Kyla Spickert finished four strokes behind to finish 22nd. Bailey Pace followed in 29th place with a 41-over par and Jace Brown was one stroke behind Pace, and Lyla Mattison was 54th with a 65-over par.

School of the Osage’s Hanna Marie Maschhoff had the top score of 78, or six-over par, to lead Osage to a first-place team score of 358. Centralia was seventh out of 13 schools with a 441.

Centralia pushes through Highland 43-0 to earn conference title game

Centralia didn’t look past its Week 7 opponent on Friday.

The Class 3 No. 4 Panthers have a matchup at Class 2 No. 7 South Shelby (6-0, 5-0 CCC) at 7 p.m. Friday in a battle for the Clarence Cannon Conference championship but took care of business first with a 43-0 victory at conference foe Highland. Centralia (7-0, 5-0 CCC) stayed undefeated and shut out its third team this year by limiting Highland to 61 yards of total offense.

“We came out ready to go, and I was really excited about that,” head coach Tyler Forsee said. “We had another big kickoff return. We didn’t score, but we got in good field position and then our offense converted two fourth-down conversions on that first drive.”

Forsee said quarterback Cullen Bennett was clutch was his few throws – 6-for-9 passing – to five different receivers, including fourth-down-converting completions to Logan Rosenfelder and Elliott McCoy. Cayden Dunn caught the seven-yard touchdown pass.

The running game had the majority of the 361 yards, led by Jesse Caballero’s 121 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries. Drayden Conde had 68 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries, and Bennett and Braedyn Decker each ran for a touchdown.

On defense, Centralia finished with six tackles for loss, led by two each from Ian Tuggle and Ashton Price and one each from Emery Mast and Beau Hatton. Mast and Hatton led the team in total tackles with seven and five, respectively.

“We beat them up front with our defensive line and linebackers,” Forsee said. “They filled the gaps, because Highland (3-4, 1-4 CCC) has a really good running back, and he wasn’t able to get out and good loose. Our guys did a good job of plugging holes.”

Forsee loves when his teams “spread the wealth.” He said the Panthers need to be unpredictable and at their best against the state-ranked Cardinals with the playoffs seemingly coming early with the conference at stake.

“It’s going to be a challenge, but that’s fun,” Forsee said. “Our kids are not scared to lose. That is a huge compliment to them because they go out and compete. They keep doing that, they’re going to find themselves on the right side of a lot of tight games.”

Lady Panthers unable to scratch across run vs Graver, Bowling Green in 5-1 loss

Centralia’s hits were scattered on Monday in its regular season finale.

The Lady Panthers fell short 5-1 to Class 2 No. 3 Bowling Green at home after Columbia College commit Megan Graver struck out 14 and allowed seven hits in seven innings. Madi Johnson hit a home run to lead off the fourth inning, but Centralia stranded eight runners.

Bowling Green (17-6) was outhit 7-6 by Centralia (18-9) but jumped ahead early with two runs each in the first two innings. Kaelyn Walters pitched a complete seven innings for the Lady Panthers, allowing three earned runs on six hits and one walk and striking out seven.

Walters finished 3-for-3 and had a stolen base to lead efforts at the plate for Centralia, and Tilly Fox, Cora King and Ellie Page each had a hit.

Centralia begins the Class 3 District 4 tournament, hosted by Moberly, as the No. 4 seed and faces No. 5 seed and Clarence Cannon Conference foe Macon (17-9) at 7 p.m. in Macon. The Lady Panthers defeated Macon twice this season on their way to an undefeated 7-0 conference record for conference title.