Centre clobbered by Claflin
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
This is the first year the Centre Cougars have had to face Claflin. They did so Friday on the road and were swamped, 66-20.
"Claflin has a lot of weapons," said Centre coach Kelly Steiner. "I thought we played well and stayed with them for the first quarter and a half, but their speed and strength eventually wore us down."
The situation worsened in the second quarter when Seth Jirak, a strong running back and linebacker, sustained a knee injury. The extent of the damage is not known at press time.
The Cougars actually scored first, at the beginning of the first quarter, with a 17-yard pass from Kevin Mueller to quarterback Thieen Antoszyk. James Weber scored the two-point conversion on a pass from Antoszyk and Centre led, 8-0.
Claflin scored the next three touchdowns and four extra points, followed by a Centre touchdown on a 25-yard pass from Mueller to Antoszyk. The PAT failed, and Claflin led, 22-14.
The Cougars were scoreless in the second quarter and Claflin scored another 22 points to jump to a 44-14 lead.
Centre held Claflin to six points in the third quarter, but failed to score. The Cougars' final points came in the fourth quarter on a 57-yard pass from Mueller to Ben Krause.
Claflin scored 16 points in the fourth, for a 46-point lead which brought into play the 45-point rule and ended the game with 8:11 remaining on the clock.
Centre mustered a total of four firstdowns, compared to 18 by Claflin. The Cougars tallied 18 carries for 43 yards, and Claflin had 60 carries for 407 yards.
Centre completed 5-of-17 passes for 128 yards and threw four interceptions. Claflin completed 8-of-14 for 132 yards and threw two interceptions.
Antoszyk was leading rusher with 10 carries for 32 yards and also leading passer, completing 4-of-11 for 71 yards. Mueller received four passes for 120 yards.
The Cougars play Quivira Heights Friday, at home.
"Quivira Heights is kind of a young team, but they do play very hard," said Coach Steiner. "We will definitely have to play a good game."
