Centralia found the fast start it wanted on Friday at home.
The Class 2 No. 5 Panthers hosted their second straight Class 2 District 5 game and won 52-12 against South Callaway (6-5). Centralia …
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Centralia found the fast start it wanted on Friday at home.
The Class 2 No. 5 Panthers hosted their second straight Class 2 District 5 game and won 52-12 against South Callaway (6-5). Centralia scored 50 points for the second straight game and fifth game this season before playing at the state No. 1 Blair Oaks (10-0) at 7 p.m. Friday.
Centralia (10-1) hadn’t played South Callaway since 2009 and only had an 8-6 lead after one quarter. Head coach Tyler Forsee said it only took seconds to score on Centralia’s first drive on a 44-yard touchdown run by Rex Bryson and then the Panthers outscored the Bulldogs 30-6 in the second quarter.
“It is important for what we’ve got to do,” Forsee said. “We got them playing from behind and get them out of their script.”
Forsee said the defense allowed a touchdown on a long first drive but bounced back after Bryson ran for another touchdown. Oliver Bohlmeyer returned an interception 32 yards for a 22-6 lead that grew to 38-6 at halftime after a running and passing touchdown by Ethan Ross.
Ross did well running tough for the second straight week, Forsee said, as he finished with 184 total yards – 149 rushing – and three total touchdowns. Bryson had 115 total yards – 92 rushing – and two touchdowns on the ground, and Charlie Robinson ran for 47 yards and one touchdown on five carries. Forsee said the usual skill players did well, and Bohlmeyer has been a good weapon as well with a prior pick six and three kickoff return touchdowns.
“We got a nice kickoff and pinned them deep and ended up getting a pick six soon after,” Forsee said. “We never looked back from there.”
Forsee said Centralia found an offensive answer to South Callaway’s aggressive defense.
“They blitz a lot,” Forsee said. “We went up the middle a lot early, they crowded up the middle and we were able to bounce it outside. The blitzing didn’t cause us problems, but we had to do a good job of keeping our eyes up and being able to pick up those blitzers coming.”
Centralia hopes to find any answers against an undefeated Blair Oaks team who is averaging 55.7 points per game and allowing 6.6 points per game.
“We only got to be better than them on one night,” Forsee said. “We’ve got to try to find a way to slow them down a little bit. They use the whole field to their advantage to find ways to put guys out in space as they’ve got a lot of good athletes. Hopefully, we get a couple takeaways to steal some possessions.”
