CENTREVILLE — The first half of Friday night’s MAIS Class AA state semifinal round game between Canton Academy and Centreville Academy featured a good quarterback duel between the Panthers’ Gerrod Anderson and the Tigers’ Casey Haygood.

The second half, however, turned into the Chase Hughes show as he scored three of his four touchdowns after halftime to lead No. 1 seed Centreville to a 49-19 win over No. 5 seed and upset-minded Canton Academy for a return trip to the Class AA state championship game.

“It was a great win for us. We picked it up a notch in the second half. Kids played hard. We’re excited to have the chance to play for a state championship,” Centreville assistant coach Brian Stutzman said.

Haygood threw a 49-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Caston with 8:48 to go until halftime, and Brock Andrus’ extra point gave the Tigers a 14-13 lead that they would take into halftime.

Hughes’ first touchdown of the night was on a 1-yard run with 5:09 remaining in the first quarter. But it was his two touchdowns in the third quarter that basically put the game away and took the air right out of the Panthers. First, he scored on a 65-yard run with 9:54 to go. Then, just less than two minutes later, he took it to the house on a 38-yard run for a 28-13 Tigers advantage.

“Chase really gave us a spark on offense. He had some big runs and some good catches,” Stutzman said. “But he’d be the first to tell you that he couldn’t do it without the line blocking.”

Hughes ended up with 209 yards on just nine carries. Addington had four carries for 50 yards. Haygood ended up completing 6 of 11 passes for 124 yards with one interception. Caston had three catches for 85 yards. Matt Darden and Park

Centreville finished with 469 yards of total offense and 18 first downs. Canton Academy (10-3) was held to 269 yards of total offense.