From the look of the score Friday, it appeared Centralia defeated conference foe Palmyra decisively.

The Panthers were ahead 7-0 at halftime and 14-0 after three quarters in their Clarence Cannon Conference opener at Miller Field in Centralia before pulling away with a 35-0 victory, maintaining their undefeated season and notching its second straight shutout win against Palmyra.

Kyden Wilkerson led the Centralia 236-yard rushing effort with his 121 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries followed by 73 yards and one touchdown on 15 carries from Breylen Whisler.

Head coach Tyler Forsee said Centralia didn’t see immediate success in the running game because of Palmyra’s preparedness on defense. The Panthers didn’t have its first 20-yard run until the fourth quarter when Wilkerson took it in from 72 yards for a 21-0 lead. Quarterback Cullen Bennett ran for 39 yards to go with his 125 passing yards and two touchdowns.

“We had to figure out what to do with how they were lining up,” Forsee said. “They loaded the box on us and caused a little problem for us so we has to find solutions. We had to figure out blocking schemes with the different techniques which they were giving and what plays were working.”

Forsee said Centralia playing a clean game helped prevent Palmyra coming back despite its 234 yards of offense and 104 yards on 11 carries from Ashton Hankins. The Panthers didn’t turn the ball over and had only one five-yard penalty.

“They run the ball extremely well, and I feel like their offensive line is getting better every week,” Forsee said. “Coach (Kevin) Miles, he’s got a pretty young squad so I think they’re much improved from Week 1 to 3.”

After completing a 24-yard touchdown pass to Ethan Adams to give Centralia its only first-half touchdown, Bennett hit Jesse Caballero for 72 yards to make it 28-0.
Forsee said Centralia (3-0, 1-0 CCC) can expect the same at Brookfield (1-2, 1-2 CCC) – who lost 46-30 at South Shelby in Week 3 – on Friday.

“I’m guessing they’re going to be physical kind of like Palmyra was,” Forsee said. “They’re not going to lay down at any point in time. That’s not the Brookfield way.”

Softball

Centralia sweeps triangular vs Highland, Troy-Buchanan

Centralia picked up a couple of meaningful wins on Saturday.

The Lady Panthers played in a triangular hosted by Clarence Cannon Conference foe Highland in Ewing, defeating the Lady Cougars 17-8 to pay them back for a 9-4 loss earlier in the week and shutting down Class 5 reigning district champion Troy-Buchanan 5-2.

Centralia tallied 15 hits, with only three going for extra bases, against Highland as six Lady Panthers had multi-RBI games and four had multi-hit games. Makenzi Adkisson drove in three RBI followed by two each from Meredith Wright, Ellie Page, Cora King, Madi Johnson and Tilly Fox. Fox shared the team-lead in hits with Harper Sontheimer as both had three but Sontheimer scored four runs.

Walters allowed six runs on eight hits against Highland, who hit another home run after the four it had the previous meeting, but also went the distance against Troy-Buchanan while allowing six hits and one earned run and striking out seven. Cady Finlay’s two-RBI double in the fourth inning was the game-winning hit as it doubled Centralia’s lead at the time to 4-0. She finished 2-for-3, and Jozelynn Bostick went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

Centralia and Highland matched each other run for run after three innings, knotted at 7 until Centralia scored 10 unanswered runs. Eight of those occurred in the fifth inning where Adkisson started the scoring with a pop fly single that brought home two runs and the next five Lady Panthers after her reached base. Fox’s two-RBI single made it 16-7 after five innings.

In the third inning against perennial 20-win Troy-Buchanan, Centralia scored their first two runs on the Lady Trojans’ only error before Finlay and Bostick gave Walter a cushion in the fourth inning.

Centralia (6-6, 2-1 CCC) hosted Mexico on Tuesday before playing at Clarence Cannon Conference foe Brookfield (5-3, 1-2 CCC) today.

Cross country

Centralia boys, girls finish second at Father Tolton

Father Tolton may have defended its home turf, but Centralia wasn’t too far behind.

On Saturday at the Father Tolton Cross Country Invitational, the Centralia girls finished second with 77 points behind Father Tolton’s winning 35 points. Jozelynn Bostick had the best finish in third place while the girls had two others finish in the top 15. The boys were second with 36 points behind Father Tolton’s 31 as JR Lesher finished fourth and was followed by two other Panthers in the top 20.

Bostick ran to a time of 20:04.63, which was slower than two Father Tolton girls including Elyse Wilmes’ winning time of 18:46.73. Kenedee Moss finished 11th with a time of 21:39.92, and Shelby Lewis was 15th with a time of 22:15.65.

Lesher had a time of 17:33.54 while the winning time was owned by Father Tolton’s Quentin Hermann at 16:51.08. Landon Moss finished 11th with a time of 18:04.61, and Carter Moss had a 17th-place time of 18:40.14.