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Turnovers doom Wash High
Relying on such tactics wasn't going to work against Center, the No. 3 seed and an eight-win team from the powerful Midwestern Conference. The Trojans thrive on extending early leads and feast on opponents' mistakes.
Well, Washington fell behind early and made plenty of mistakes.
Two interceptions, four lost fumbles and a handful of inopportune penalties are no way to win on the road in the postseason. Against Center, that's a recipe for a blowout and the Trojans came away with a 27-0 victory.
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Center (9-1), playing its final home game before merging with Class A Monaca next year to form Central Valley High School, had all the momentum from the opening kickoff and the Trojans hope it carries over into the quarterfinals, where they play Greensburg Central Catholic, the third-place team from the Interstate Conference.
"We've played like that all year. We did nothing different," Center coach Larry Taddeo said. "We did the same thing the past 10 weeks."
Washington (6-4), which went 1-8 a year ago, didn't do the things it did to get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2005.
There were no big plays or timely turnovers or grind-it-out drives.
The underclassmen, particularly a few key freshmen, played beyond their varsity experience through the final stretch of the regular season, even during last week's loss at McGuffey.
Center made the Prexies looked awfully inexperienced during a dreadful first half.
"We kept shooting ourselves in the foot," Bosnic said. "We didn't give ourselves a chance."
The Trojans didn't give Washington any chances either.
They applied constant pressure on Washington quarterback Marquis Brown and it generated seven plays of negative yardage through the first two quarters as Center carried a 17-0 lead into the second half.
"That's our defense," Taddeo said.
The Prexies struggled on offense and things weren't much better on defense as Center's spread offense, engineered by quarterback Preston Dawson, performed smoothly.
The Trojans' first score was setup on a special teams error by Washington. Punting from inside the Prexies' 10, Brown was pressured by Dawson and tackled on the 6. Two plays later, Ben Cobb scored on a two-yard run.
On its next offensive possession, Center converted a fourth-and-10 when Dawson hit Lukas Turley for 12 yards. It led to a 24-yard Luca Campos field goal and a 10-0 lead.
Center added another touchdown on its next possession when the Prexies secondary, which looked confused for much of the game, lost Joshua Garrett. Dawson connected with him on a fade route for a 14-yard touchdown.
Aaron Law added a 62-yard interception return in the third quarter and Campos capped the scoring with a 25-yard field goal.
And while Center is playing its final football games - Central Valley will play at Center's stadium - Washington can think about its future.
Players like Zach Barnes, Jaylin Kelly, Matt Brower and Daron Whitaker provide plenty of promise.
"This season was a great building block. These guys got a lot better," Bosnic said. "We won some exciting games and scored some big wins. I'm real proud of this football team."
good job : 11/7/2009
Congratulations Wash High on getting to the playoffs again. Time for the Prexies to be number 1 again and this season was a grat start....
