Centralia 50, Horton 6

The defending 2-1A State Champion, Centralia-Wetmore football team started their 3A post-season with a home Bi-District victory against Horton on Tuesday night at Riggins Field.  It was a slow start as both teams went exchanged punts without a first down to begin the game.  The Panthers however, fumbled their punt return and Horton had the ball at the visitors 25 yard line.  The Chargers failed to score and would end up with only one first down and 36 total yards in the first half.  

Centralia was pinned deep at their own three-yard-line, but ripped off three staight plays over 15 yards and moved downfield before Darian Turner opened the scoring with an eight yard TD run to cap the 8-plan, 97-yard drive.  The Panthers led 6-0 after one quarter, but their offense was just getting warmed up and they scored touchdown on seven straight possessions, including a 36-0 blitz in the second quarter.  Wyatt VanDown found Jon Johnson on a 59-yard scoring pass to make it 12-0 before Trevor Mars added a two-yard-run and Johnson scored on an 11 yard run and Tuner added touchdown jaunts of 44 and 51 yards and the Panthers started four drives at the 50 or in  Horton territory to take control.  

Turner capped his night with a 58 yard TD run to open the third quarter and the game had a running clock for the final 21 minutes.  Centralia had 345 yards at halftime and averaged 12 yards per play before finishing the game with 421 yards of offense.  Turner was the Citizens State Bank and Trust Company "Player to Bank On" with 253 yards on just 10 carries and 4 trips to the endzone.  The Denison State Bank Online "Lineman of the Game" was senior, Joey Ferron.  Centralia-Wetmore won for the 43rd time in their last 45 games, improving to 9-1 on this season and getting a rematch against #1 ranked Rossville, who beat the Panthers 42-6 in week six.  That game is at 7:00 PM Saturday night in Rossville.  

Horton finished with just 120 yards of offense and was 0-12 passing.  Derek Richardson had 45 yards rushing on 12 carries and scored the only Horton points on a 29 yard touchdown.   Eight Charger seniors played their final game in a season that they won an undefeated Northeast Kansas League Title and made the playoffs for the first time since 2008.