Orphans win over Warriors
Orphans make most of road trip
Centralia scores 42-6 win at Granite City
By RANDY LIST
GRANITE CITY — In their only and perhaps last trip to Granite City, the Centralia High School football team made the most of it.
Scoring on their first six possessions including the opening kickoff, the Orphans accumulated all their points in the first half Friday night in a 42-6 win over the Warriors on Kevin Greene Field.
Centralia is 3-1 on the season heading into this week’s game at Carbondale. Granite City, which will no longer be on the schedule as it returns to the Southwestern Conference while the Orphans join the Cahokia next year, is 0-4.
Kenny Bratton’s 95-yard kickoff return put Centralia ahead to stay just 19 seconds into the game and the Orphans were never headed.
“We spent some time on special teams, thinking we hadn’t been up to par,” Centralia coach Brad Goewey said of the week’s practice sessions. “Obviously, Kenny did some good things there and I thought we latched on better than we had the first three weeks.
“We scored right out of the gate and were able to steamroll that into some positive offensive plays.”
That included four touchdown passes by Archie Goewey, who was 16 of 18 for 206 yards with Kruz Jackson catching three scores, Bratton one and Mike Brown scored a rushing TD. Caiden Taylor was 7 for 7 on PATs.
Centralia’s defense limited the Warriors to 109 yards total offense with Granite City’s score coming on a fumble recovery in the end zone at the the end of the third period.
“I think our kids are starting to understand what it takes,” said Brad Goewey. “I thought we did an efficient job of making this a half game, and then getting the other guys in there to get them some rest and to see how they (the jayvees) do. That’s what we wanted to have happen, and it did.”
Julian Martinez’s 20-yard reception was Centralia’s longest play on its second scoring drive which was capped by a 4-yard run by Brown. A bad snap on a punt by the Warriors was recovered by Gabe Houser at the Granite City 20, and Jackson caught an 18-yard TD pass two plays later.
Bratton had a 32-yard reception for a score just before the quarter ended with the Orphans holding a 28-0 lead and Jackson caught a pair of 11-yard scoring passes in the second period. The second came with 2:15 left in the half and made it 42-0.
Granite City took advantage of a bad snap to score on a running clock. Ryan Brokaw had a 40-yard gain but as he was brought down by the Orphans’ Jalen Jackson inside the 5-yard line, the ball popped free and rolled forward where the Warriors’ Kaysen Emmerson recovered it for a touchdown.
In the closing seconds, the Warriors drove to a first and goal at the Orphans’ 5-yard line but Cooper Green recovered a fumble for Centralia to end the threat.
“It’s a good (3-1) start, but what will we do with it?” said Brad Goewey of Centralia’s opening conference play this week. “Our conference as a whole sounds like it’s pretty solid and we’ve told the kids let’s strive toward getting ourselves into a position to try and win it.
“It starts on Monday and we’ll see what we can do.”
CENTRALIA 42, GRANITE CITY 6
Centralia 28 14 0 0 — 42
GraniteCity 0 0 6 0 — 6
C: Kenny Bratton 95 kickoff return (Caiden Taylor kick), 11:46, 1st
C: Mike Brown 4 run (Caiden Taylor kick), 8:14, 1st
C: Kruz Jackson 18 pass from Archie Goewey (Caiden Taylor kick), 5:04, 1st
C: Kenny Bratton 32 pass from Archie Goewey (Caiden Taylor kick), 1:11, 1st
C: Kruz Jackson 11 pass from Archie Goewey (Caiden Taylor kick), 7:56, 2nd
C: Kruz Jackson 11 pass from Archie Goewey (Caiden Taylor kick), 2:15, 2nd
G: Kaysen Emerson recovered fumble in end zone (run failed), 0:12, 3rd
FIRST DOWNS: C 18, G 3
RUSHES/YARDS: C 29/93, G 17/87
YARDS PASSING: C 206, G 22
PASSES: C 16-18-0, G 8-16-0 FUMBLES/LOST C 1/1, G 1/1 PENALTIES/YARDS: C 4-30, G 11-87
PUNTS/AVG.: C 0/0, G 5-28.4
POSSESSION TIME: C 24:10, G 23:50
RUSHING LEADERS: Mike Brown (C) 16-66, Ryan Brokaw (G) 7-48, Dexter McClendon (G) 3-27, Will Stanton (C) 2-19
PASSING LEADERS: Archie Goewey (C) 16 of 18 for 206 yds., 4 TDs, Jesus Atilano (G) 8 of 16 for 22 yds.
RECEIVING LEADERS: Kruz Jackson (C) 6-75, 3 TDs, Zaidyn McClain (C) 4-41, Kenny Bratton (C) 2-50 TD, Julian Martinez (C) 2-24
TACKLE LEADERS: Lucas Ashlock (C) 4, Demetrius Gipson (C) 3
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