Oct. 29 was a long night for the Centennial football team.
The Broncos earned a spot in the Class C2 football playoffs and traveled to Ord for the first round. The Chanticleers led 35-0 before the Broncos got on the board. Ord went on to win the game 62-21.
“They jumped on us early and it snowballed,” Coach Evan Klanecky said. “We got beat by a better team this night.”
The Ord defense held the Centennial rushing game to just 30 yards on 22 carries. Klanecky said Ord’s team speed was too much for CHS.
“They moved us all over the field,” he said. “We played hard and did what we could.”
Turnovers and mistakes didn’t help the Bronco cause, he said. CHS lost three fumbles and threw one interception.
“We had a couple breakdowns in coverage. We had some dropped balls and missed blocks. We weren’t able to make plays,” Klanecky said.
He was pleased with the play of seniors Carson Fehlhafer, Sam Payne, Jayden Hartshorn and Jake Bargen, among others, who played hard all night.
Fehlhafer led the defense with nine solo tackles and four assists. Payne finished with three solo tackles and three assists and Hartshorn with five solo stops and three assists.
Bargen caught six passes for 101 yards and two touchdowns and added two solo tackles and one assist.
“It’s always easy when you win. It’s tough when you’re down,” Klanecky said. “It’s heartbreaking to see the guys go through this.”
The scout team player for the week was freshman Parker Dishman.
Centennial, which finished the season 5-5, will graduate 11 seniors – Fehlhafer, Payne, Hartshorn, Bargen, Mike Nisly, Oscar Glerup, Lance Haberman, Isak Grue, Justin Rumery, Reiden Fowler and Carson Prochaska.
Klanecky said the group raised the bar for the next classes. They cleaned the locker room, jogged to practice, always brought their playbooks to meetings, were responsible and worked hard.
“They’ve done a great job,” Klanecky said.
