Cullen Bennett is not Beau Gordon but didn’t have to be Friday night.

According to Centralia football head coach Tyler Forsee, the 2022 Panthers are not the 2021 Panthers as they began this season with a 26-21 win at Mexico, avenging the 46-20 loss to the Bulldogs on their home field last year and giving the Panthers their second win in nine tries against Mexico.

The sophomore quarterback Bennett threw for two touchdowns on 6-for-10 passing and 71 yards, and senior running back Kyden Wilkerson ran for two scores in the second half and 155 yards on 26 carries. Mexico ended the first half with a long touchdown run from senior Anthony Shivers to take the halftime lead, but the offense that collected 235 yards on the ground were nearly shutout in the second half.

Centralia ran for 217 yards and kept Mexico to 17 yards passing on one completion and 10 misses. Shivers led the Bulldogs with 87 yards on 11 carries, and senior Andrew Runge had 82 yards on 12 carries.

Forsee said Bennett put in the work in the offseason to prepare for his ascension to the starting role on the depth chart, following the graduation of the Clarence Cannon Conference offensive player of the year Gordon, and did well in his debut by being himself.

“Cullen is not Beau Gordon, and Beau Gordon is not Cullen,” Forsee said. “They’re different players. One thing Cullen did do is work his butt off all winter long. I bet he threw 3,000 passes from the end of last season to the beginning of this one.”

Centralia had to play catchup as it fell behind 7-0 with 7:42 left in the first quarter after senior quarterback Ty Sims connected with senior Ryder Staddie on a 16-yard pass following a fake handoff to senior Morgan Grubb. Prior to that play, Grubb carried the ball twice for first downs on a 9-play, 70-yard drive as part of his 56-yard day on the ground.

With three minutes gone in the second quarter, Bennett was forced to run to his left in the pocket before hitting junior Cayden Dunn for the Panthers’ first touchdown. Bennett came through again on the run with three minutes left in the first half as junior Beau Hatton caught a 28-yard touchdown in the seam for a 12-7 Centralia lead.

“We really hadn’t ran him all summer,” Forsee said. “I’m trying to keep him healthy. Our offense kind of goes through him a bit, so it was nice to see him get some yards on the ground and have success there.”

Mexico had another big play in the tank before halftime as Shivers ran along the sideline for a 58 yard touchdown with just about a minute to go and made it a 14-12 Bulldog lead.

In the second half, Mexico head coach Steve Haag said his team’s tank might have been too low, especially at the line against a big Centralia team.

“We got to get in shape,” Haag said. “We’ve got to fix some things up front. They beat us bad up front. As the game went on, you could see we were wearing out for whatever reason – probably my fault. We probably should have done a little more conditioning in practice. We will from now on. Don’t worry about that.”

Haag said there were some young players who are adjusting to new positions that still need some adjusting but felt others shined despite not having much experience in places.

“Ryder Staddie, he’s played corner for three days,” Haag said. “He played a hell of a game at corner for us. Wyler Broeker is a freshman. He came in and got us quality snaps.

“I thought (sophomore) Peyton Hoover did a great job learning, when we moved him to middle backer, he started reading the pulling guards a lot better and then we started getting tackles for loss. But then he goes out and hurts his back, so he has to come out. You have a veteran linebacker, he knows somebody pulls, go fill that hole and you can make some stops. That’s just a learning thing.”

Centralia was more successful in the running game in the second half, going with six rushes on a 67-yard drive to begin the third quarter with an 18-14 lead. Reigning all-conference running back Wilkerson capped the drive with a nine-yard run not long after a 36-yard run into the red zone.

“(Mexico) returned a lot of guys,” Forsee said. “We returned a lot of guys too. It definitely pays off having that Friday night experience. Our guys did a good job of bending but not breaking.”

Wilkerson increased the Panthers’ lead with a 39-yard run with 11:33 left in the fourth quarter, giving them a 26-14 after converting their first two-point conversion in four tries.

Mexico had some time to work with, but Shivers was stopped at midfield on fourth down. On the next drive, Sims tried to hit senior Matt McCurdy in the end zone but found Centralia senior Ethan Adams for the interception instead with 5:40 left.
Sims kept a two-yard run to bring Mexico within five points with 43 seconds left in the game after going 56 yards on 10 plays. Up to that point, the Bulldogs were scoreless in the second half with their option offense.

“The first drive, I had a sophomore that made some very sophomore plays instead of varsity plays,” Forsee said. “You got to expect that Game 1. After the first drive, (junior) Jesse Caballero played extremely well (with six tackles). That shut it down.”

Mexico drew eight penalties – five in the first half – including a personal foul that erased an 84-yard touchdown run by Shivers in the first quarter. The Bulldogs also had a couple fumbles they recovered but stalled the offense. Haag said he didn’t agree with some calls, but Mexico could be smoother on offense going forward.

“I thought some (calls) were questionable,” Haag said. “But look at the passing game, how many guys did we have wide open? Missed passes. Dropped passes. We struggle in practice. But we had to. They were loading up the box and had people there. We had steps on people, but we just couldn’t complete it.”

Centralia plays its home opener at 7 p.m. Friday against Hallsville (1-0), who defeated Palmyra 58-20 in Week 1, and Mexico goes on the road Friday for a 7 p.m. game at Southern Boone (0-1), who lost at home to Odessa 45-42 last week.