Tigers maul Apaches, Simpson matchup set

Southern Sports & Travel

In 2008 the Centreville Tigers advanced to the Class AA state championship game and won the school’s eighth football title by defeating Kirk Academy 28-10. It’s been five seasons since the perennial power has play for a state championship but following a 55-12 dismantling of fourth ranked Glenbrook on Friday night the Tigers will again play for a state championship, this one number nine.

In last week’s playoff win over Tri-County starting quarterback Casey Haygood sustained a season ending ankle injury that required surgery. Many had written off the Class AA top ranked Tigers after receiving the devastating news that one of the premier quarterbacks in the MAIS would be unavailable against high powered Glenbrook.

Step in Centreville freshman quarterback Britt Netterville.

Netterville didn’t set the world on fire in the Tiger’s dominant win over Glenbrook on Friday night but the freshman tossed two touchdown passes and most importantly didn’t make any costly mistakes in guiding the Tigers to 55 points, the team’s second highest scoring output of the season.

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“There was a good bit of concern but we knew that he was very capable,” said Centreville assistant head coach Brian Stutzman. “We had a lot of confidence he could handle the situation and he did a great job.”

Making Netterville’s job that much easier was Glenbrook’s introduction to Bill Hurst football, to the tune of 426 rushing yards.

Centreville tailback John Marcus McDowell led the Tiger ground game with 185 yards on 17 carries and 2 touchdowns, Tyler Caston added 91 yards on 13 carries with a touchdown and Mark Curry rang up 85 yards on 14 carries and 2 touchdowns.

“That was our game plan whether Haygood was at quarterback or Netterville,” said Stutzman. “We felt if we could control the ball and didn’t have any turnovers we would be successful.”

Netterville did what was asked of him in directing the Centreville offense and went 3 of 4 for 85 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Centreville held a 21-12 advantage at intermission but exploded with 34 second half points to eliminate Glenbrook.

Defensively Centreville did what many have not been able to do, contain Glenbrook senior signal-caller Regan Edwards who led the MAIS in both total touchdowns (56) and passing yards.

“He is the best we had seen on tape,” said Stutzman. “We knew we had to put some pressure on him and flush him out of the pocket, which we were able to do. Our secondary covered well, it was a total team effort from our defense.”

Edwards finishes his senior campaign with 4,141 yards passing and 49 touchdowns through the air to go along with 484 yards rushing and 7 rushing touchdowns.

Against Centreville Edwards was held to 237 yards passing with 2 touchdowns and 3 interceptions.

Mark Curry, Colby Shaw and Jordan Clark each had an interception on the night.

Friday night’s semi-final win not only sent Centreville back into the familiar setting of the state championship game, it also eased some pain associated with the manner in which the 2012 season concluded.

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After running the regular season table with a perfect 11-0 mark the Tigers were shocked in a first round home playoff loss to Lamar.

“Everyone thought we were going to the state championship last year,” said Stutzman. “This year I don’t know that many gave us credit with just three seniors, but it’s an exciting time for us.”

Centreville enters the Class AA state championship game against second ranked Simpson riding an eleven game win streak.

The last meeting between Centreville and Simpson was in the 2004 Class AA state championship game with Simpson defeating Centreville 45-0.