Staff writer
In the first home game of the season Friday, the Centre Cougars were defeated, 58-22, by the Little River Redskins.
After being forced to punt over and over again in the first quarter and giving up 20 points, the team began to make some progress in the second quarter.
Little River struck first, adding another 8 points to their lead. Centre received the ball, and quarterback Justin Deines ran three plays for 31 yards. Kyle Methvin carried the ball to the 18-yard line, and Shane Methvin caught a pass from Deines to take it to the 4-yard line.
Deines carried it in for a touchdown in the next play, and Kyle Methvin ran for the 2-point conversion.
Good defense forced Little River to turn the ball over on downs in its next possession. The first half ended with the score, 28-8.
The Cougars scored another touchdown in the third quarter after the Redskins again were forced to turn over the ball.
Despite two incomplete passes and a quarterback sack, Kordell Harding and Shane Methvin were able to carry the ball into the red zone, and Methvin ran it in for a touchdown. The extra-point attempt was no good, and the score stood at 28-14.
The Redskins scored two more touchdowns before the end of the quarter, taking a commanding 42-14 lead.
The Cougars couldn’t stop the Redskins in the fourth quarter. They scored two more touchdowns before Centre made its final foray into the end zone. It came with one minute and 53 seconds remaining in the game on a 4-yard run by Deines.
The Cougars compiled 13 first downs compared with nine by Little River. Centre had five fumbles and recovered all of them with no loss of yardage. Little River had one fumble and recovery with no loss. Both teams lost 75 yards on penalties.
Statistics
Team rushing: LR, 36c-211; Centre, 45c-181.
Team passing: LR, 3-6-0-66; Centre, 6-19-1, 52
Rushing: Deines, 20-73; Kyle Methvin, 13-73; Kordell Harding, 12-38.
Passing: Deines, 6-19-52.
Pass receptions: Shane Methvin, 5-46; Kyle Methvin, 1-6.
Peabody Burns
A relatively inexperienced football team faced its first test Sept. 2 at Peabody-Burns.
A game full of trial and error, mostly errors, resulted in a defeat of 36-6. The team lost the ball three times on fumbles and three times on interceptions.
“We had a lot of guys getting their first varsity experience and it showed,” coach Kelly Steiner said. “We had seven turnovers in the first half.”
The Cougars remained scoreless in the first three quarters. After a 20-0 first quarter, the team held Peabody-Burns to just one touchdown in each of the second and third quarters and no points in the fourth.
Centre’s only points were scored with just one minute remaining in the game. Justin Deines threw a 12-yard pass to Kyle Methvin for a touchdown. The conversion attempt failed.
Centre had 32 carries for 89 yards compared with Peabody-Burns with 41 carries and 191 yards. The Cougars led in the air, completing 110 yards compared with 81 by the Warriors.
Harding was the leading rusher, with eight carries for 58 yards. Shane Methvin had seven carries for 20 yards.
Deines threw 19 passes for 10 completions and 107 yards. Kyle Methvin was leading receiver, catching six passes for 60 yards. Other receivers were Houston Svoboda, 2-for-28, and Shane Methvin, 3-for-22.
“We cannot continue to beat ourselves,” Steiner said. “We are going to make some changes and work hard to get better.”
The Cougars have a home game Friday against Hope.