Centreville beats Oak Hill, WCCA loses

Published 12:26 am Saturday, November 2, 2013

CENTREVILLE — For much of the regular season, Centreville Academy had to rely on its passing game to make up for a lack of a ground game. That was not the case Friday night in the first round of the MAIS Class AA Playoffs.

The Tigers got 100-plus rushing yard performances from Mark Curry and Tyler Caston, which took the pressure off quarterback Casey Haygood in a 59-34 win over the Oak Hill Academy Raiders.

Curry led Centreville’s rushing attack with 131 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries. Caston had two carries for 111 yards and one touchdown. As a team, No. 2 seed Centerville had 363 total rushing yards — by far the most the Tigers have had all season.

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Haygood went 8-of-12 passing for 109 yards with two touchdowns and one interception and he added a 17-yard touchdown run nearly midway through a 23-point third quarter.

And if that wasn’t enough, the Tigers’ defense had two safeties in the game. But the one thing they had a hard time with was Oak Hill’s passing game. Raiders quarterback Riley Pierce threw three touchdown passes, but his first one wasn’t until after they were down 23-0 after one quarter of play.

Despite Pierce’s best effort to get No. 15 seed Oak Hill back in the game, the Tigers still outscored the Raiders 29-28 in the second half.

Centreville (10-1) will have its hands full next Friday at 7 p.m. when it plays host to No. 7 seed Tri-County Academy — last year’s Class A state champion.

Cenla Christian 32, WCCA 14

PINEVILLE, La. — When Jalen Washington scored on a two-yard run with 7:32 to go in the first quarter, No. 13 seed Wilkinson County Christian Academy had already scored more points against No. 4 seed CENLA Christian Academy than it did when the two teams played each other a few weeks ago when the Lions won that game 40-2.

And the Rams were thinking upset when they led 14-0 at the end of the first quarter. Unfortunately, they could not keep the Lions’ duo of Dezmond Eddie and J. Ray Battles contained long enough to pull off the big upset and their season came to an end Friday night in the first round of the MAIS Class A Playoffs.

Drew Skinner set up WCCA’s second touchdown of the first quarter with a fumble recovery at the Lions’ 15-yard line. A few plays later, Washington connected with Dakota Jones on a 6-yard touchdown pass. Reid Sturgeon’s extra point gave the Rams a stunning 14-0 lead and the CENLA Christian fans who attended the game played at Louisiana College Wildcat Stadium had to wonder what was going on.

But it didn’t take long for the Lions to take control of the game. Eddie scored on a 6-yard run with 9:56 to go in the second quarter. Battles scored on a 2-yard run and Kofi Dieniemy threw to Peyton Gauthier for the two-point conversion to tie the game at 14-14 with 4:50 to go until halftime.

Battles scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 3-yard run with 8:30 remaining in the third quarter. Both Eddie and Battles had 8-yard touchdown runs in the fourth quarter to cap off the rally.

WCCA finished its season with a 3-7 overall record.