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| SportsFriday, August 24, 2007 11:35 PM CDT |
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Centennial's Leshoure comes up big in win over West
NORMAL — With 4.6 seconds remaining in the first half Friday night and the score tied 7-7, the Champaign Centennial High School football team decided to throw a “Hail Mary” pass. Standout running back Mikel Leshoure made sure the Chargers’ prayer was answered. Leshoure leaped over two Normal West defenders to make a circus catch and raced untouched into the end zone for a 68-yard touchdown that sparked Centennial to a 25-7 Big 12 Conference win in the season opener for both teams. “I just want to make some plays for my team,” Leshoure said. “It was a jump ball and I came down with it. It felt good to get that score before halftime because they had a lot of momentum going. We took the momentum from them and gained some for us.” Other than the long TD pass from quarterback Tyler Stefan, West limited the 6-foot-1, 225-pound Leshoure to 118 yards on 23 carries. Leshoure ran for 2,454 yards as a junior. “I thought defensively we did a great job,” said West coach Darren Hess. “But Leshoure does that to you. You can do a great job 90 percent of the time and that 10 percent always kills you.” Leshoure scored on a 3-yard run to cap a game-opening, 61-yard drive for the Chargers, who are ranked No. 10 in Class 6A. West pulled even with 3:25 left in the first half on junior quarterback Jordan Jefferson’s 56-yard TD pass to a wide-open Matt Paska. Leshoure’s TD catch clearly deflated the Wildcats, and Centennial dominated the second half with the help of some West miscues. The Chargers recorded a safety midway through the third quarter after the snap from center sailed over Jefferson’s head into the end zone. Following the ensuing free kick, Centennial pushed the lead to 19-7 on a 23-yard field goal by Stefan. Centennial, which held penalty-plagued West to 6 yards in the second half, also received a 14-yard TD run from sophomore running back Rayvonte Rice late in the fourth quarter. “When you come into the first game of the year, you really don’t know what to expect,’ said Centennial coach Mike McDonnell. “I told the guys the first quarter we have to figure out what they’re doing. We came out and felt our way around and the guys did a nice job of adjusting after that.” Centennial outgained West 301-174. Darius Bell rushed for a team-high 85 yards on 17 carries for West, while Jefferson was 3 of 11 for 69 yards with one interception. The Wildcats were whistled for nine penalties. “I was proud of the way we regrouped and scored,” Hess said. “Unfortunately we couldn’t establish anything in the second half, and I thought we had way too many penalties. You just can’t do that against a Centennial football team. We’ll go back to work on Monday and try to get better.” Get area high school sports scores and statistics at Varsity Sports. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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George wrote on Aug 27, 2007 9:17 PM:
ha wrote on Aug 25, 2007 3:50 PM:
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