District play opened up for many teams across the State on Friday night and in a battle of Nemaha County it was Nemaha Central and Centralia looking to start Districts with a win. The Thunder kept their season rolling establishing pace early on their way to the 43-14 win on the road. 

Nemaha Central would punch first in the contest as Centralia had looked to stop the Thunder of their first offensive drive setting up a third and long but Ryan Hasenkamp took to air and found Tristan Allen for a 23-yard connect to keep the first Thunder drive going. That got things rolling for Nemaha Central who finished the drive with an 11-yard Kyle Rethman touchdown run to take a 6-0 lead with 6:46 left in the first quarter (PAT was blocked). 

The Thunder continued to roll in the first half scoring on their next few drives, while limiting Centralia's production and keeping the Panthers from developing offensive consistency. Nemaha Central found the endzone again with 21.4 seconds left in the first as Hasenkamp hit Allen for a 35-yard connection for the score and with the two-point conversion it was 14-0. The aerial assault continued in the second quarter for Nemaha Central as Hasenkamp found Allen again this time for a 42-yard touchdown and also connected with his tight end, Dalton Hiltbrand down the middle for 32-yard score, pushing the Thunder to 30-0 lead which they took into halftime. 

Centralia had limited time before the end of the first half and had one final opportunity to try and get a big play to get into the endzone but they came up just short as the horn sounded as Braden Deters hit Dustin Talley for 39 yards but he was brought down at the five-yard line and halftime hit. 

Out of intermission the Panthers had a stout defensive stand and got the ball in the third quarter mounting a 13-play drive to breakthrough on the scoreboard as John Johnson found the endzone from five-yards out on a run, making it 30-7 with 3:45 left in the third. But Nemaha Central was not rattled on their first offense play on the next drive Hasenkamp went 74-yards on the ground to answer for the Thunder making it 36-7. Hasenkamp added another touchdown run to make it 43-7 with just fewer than 11 minutes to go in the contest. 

The Panthers continued to battle had forced a fumble on their own three-yard with some reserves in for Nemaha Central and on the next play Deters went 97-yards up the middle to the house for the score, making it 43-14, which would be the final score. 

In the loss Centralia had Deters run for 159 yards on 17 carries with a touchdown and go 3-6 for 93 yards, while Johnson had 52 yards on 20 carries with a score. Talley caught two passes for 53 yards for the Panthers. 

Hasenkamp once again led the charge for Nemaha Central going 9-11 for 206 yards with three touchdowns and rushing for 142 yards on seven carries with two more scores to earn Community National Bank "Player to Bank On" honors on KMZA. Allen hauled in four catches for 114 yards with two touchdowns, while Hiltbrand grabbed two passes for 65 yards and a score and Rethman finished with 67 yards on nine carries with a touchdown. 

The win pushes Nemaha Central to 7-0 on the season and they next play at Rock Creek next Friday, October 23rd, while Centralia with the loss fell to 3-4 and will look to snap a three-game losing streak next week at St. Mary's.