Centerburg answers Ridgewood’s challenge, advances with 28-14 playoff win

Centerburg football coach Andy Colella has confidence in his team, but he was interested to see how they would react to adversity.

The Trojans hadn’t been challenged in several weeks, and after a week off for a bye in the playoffs, there might have been the hint of concern how the team would fare when a good team challenged them.

Challenge accepted and answered.

Ridgewood smacked the Trojans in the mouth early Friday night, but Centerburg answered the bell and rolled to a 28-14 victory in a Division VI, Region 23, playoff football game Friday at Centerburg.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Figure out how to get to the next week. Our guys did a great job of that,” said Centerburg coach Andy Colella. “That’s (Ridgewood) a really good football program and football team. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, and I think that was the challenge this week. It’s been easy for a while for us, so when you get in those situations, how are you going to respond?”

The Generals (9-3) came out swinging, stuffing the high-flying Trojans on three plays. Then, they marched on a 61-yard ground and pound scoring drive to go up 7-0. Centerburg’s first two plays of their second drive were the same and the Trojans faced the possibility of another three-and-out.

That’s when seniors Blane Ball and Hayden Love said enough. The duo hooked up for a 49-yard pass play on third and 10 that fired up the Trojans and their fans. Junior running back Miles Marshall then took over, running it in from 17 yards out, and the Trojans had their confidence and swagger back.

“You’ve got to get it to your playmakers. It was tight coverage, and he (Love) went up and made a play. That’s what he’s been doing all year, so you’ve got to do those things to win these kinds of games,” Colella said.

“I thought it was a great high school football game. Real physical game. I thought Centerburg was a really good team,” said Ridgewood coach John Slusser. “Thought we had some chances. They hit that big pass play and it just changed the whole momentum of the game. We’re up 7-0, just drove the ball down the field, had them at third and 10, and they throw one up and everything changed.”

Centerburg’s defense was fired up, as well, and stuffed Ridgewood on three plays. It didn’t take long for Marshall to find the end zone again and the Trojans (10-1) were up 14-7.

Ridgewood wasn’t ready to go home, though, and tied the game up on a trick play. Halfback Maverick Lockard took a pitch from quarterback Jace McQueen, then fired a pass to a wide-open Talon Carns for a 70-yard score that tied the game up at 14.

But the Trojans stayed the course, drove back down the field and scored on Marshall’s third TD run of the game – this one for 38 yards.

“I still felt like we were in it,” Slusser said. “We went into the half down six in Centerburg on the road, I was alright with that. I thought we could do that. I was more concerned that we weren’t able to stop them, but we came out in the second half and held them to seven. We made a few adjustments. They’ve just got a lot of skill players. They’re real big. Their size I thought really hurt us.”

After the teams slugged it out in the third quarter, Marshall added his fourth TD of the game early in the fourth to give Centerburg some breathing room. Marshall finished with 193 yards rushing and all four of Centerburg’s scores.

“He (Marshall) always does (run hard). The challenge for him was, he pops off those big runs or whatever, but tonight it was good to see sustained drives and runs of five yards, nine yards, eight yards. We didn’t get the big explosive plays, maybe like we have before. It’s difficult against teams like that to do that. But he was able to stay patient and keep grinding it out,” Colella said.

Ridgewood tried to make a comeback, marching to the Trojan 22-yard line midway through the fourth quarter. But the Trojan defense stuffed the Generals on fourth down and ran out the clock.

“They’ve (the defense) been great all year. The one pass they caught for a pass was a blown coverage. Once we adapted after the first drive, they played great,” Colella said.

Ball finished the night completing 9 of 14 passes for 134 yards. Love caught five of those passes for 91 yards, while Ballinger had three receptions for 30 yards.

The Trojans will host Colonel Crawford, a 42-8 winner over Mt. Gilead, on Friday at 7 p.m. The winner will advance to the regional finals to face the winner of Fort Frye and West Jefferson.