Cougars down Sylvan Grove, fall to Waverly in regionals
Sports reporter
After a successful 6-3 regular season, Centre High School football team entered bi-district play Nov. 1 with a road game against 7-2 Sylvan Grove.
The Cougars jumped out to a 28-0 lead at halftime and looked to cruise into regionals.
Sylvan Grove had other ideas outscoring Centre 16-0 in the third quarter, and putting up 14 more points in the fourth.
However the Cougars got a one-yard run by junior Seth Jirak with four minutes left to hold off the Sylvan Grove charge, and win 36-30.
Jirak finished with 66 yards and three touchdowns on the ground, while senior Bryant Gutsch had 117 yards and senior Lance Diepenbrock chipped in with 63.
The Cougars had just 31 yards through the air, but it was enough to advance Saturday to regionals.
The schedule gave CHS another road match, this time against 9-1 Waverly, a 32-26 winner against South Haven in bi-district.
The Cougar fans were loud and on their feet, but were quieted early when the Bulldogs score on a 16-yard pass play just three minutes, 25 seconds into the game.
They would add another on a one-yard run with 3:33 left in the opening quarter to grab a 14-0 lead.
After another scoring drive by Waverly made the score 22-0, Centre coach Bud Peterson said his team was forced to play a different style than it was used to.
"We could not get our running game going," he said. "We were in trouble because we had not gone to our pass that much in recent games."
After attempting just eight passes against Sylvan Grove, senior quarterback Dustin Burnett attempted 37 passes, completing 17 for 186 yards.
The stingy Bulldog defense finally gave up a score when Diepenbrock barreled into the end zone with 5:02 remaining until halftime.
Waverly wasn't done however. With no timeouts and sitting at second-and-10 on the Cougar 21-yard line, the Bulldogs completed a touchdown pass with just 25 ticks before the half, giving them a 28-6 lead at the break.
The Cougar fans were loud once again as the team emerged from the locker room, but CHS could not get its offense going.
The defense stiffened up in the third quarter, allowing just six points, but the 34-6 deficit was too much for one quarter.
The Cougars eventually fell 46-12, ending the season at 7-4.
Peterson wondered if a hard-fought battle against Sylvan Grove just four days earlier may have taken the life out of his team. Whatever the reason, the Cougars still finished with five more victories than one year ago, and the fans showed their appreciation.
Diepenbrock led CHS on the ground with 35 yards and two scores.
Gutsch caught five passes for 52 yards, and Thieen Antoszyk hauled in three for 51 yards.
On the defensive side Jirak led with 19 total tackles, including nine solo.
Tad Remy was in on 17 total tackles, and Steve Hageberg, Andrew Bowman, and Diepenbrock had 10 each.
