Central silences Killian in region final to reach semis
All week long, Miami Central stewed but stayed quiet.
Perhaps it was feeling a little disrespected because Killian players and coaches, despite being undefeated, came into Region 4-Class 5A championship Saturday as an underdog and went to social media during the week to perhaps for a little trashtalking.
What the Cougars learned the hard way Saturday night is Central, with a pedigree that measures success by state championships and nothing else, doesn’t need to do any chirping. The Rockets do all their talking on the field and did that again Saturday night as they completely dismantled the Cougars for a 39-13 win at Tropical
Park.
The Rockets, with their sights clearly set on a third consecutive state title and eighth overall, advanced to the 5A semifinals and will host Glen St. Mary Baker County on Friday at Traz Powell Stadium.
“They were doing a lot of talking coming into the game and kind of disrespected all week, so we just figured we’d come out and shut them up tonight by doing all of our talking on the field,” said defensive end Rueben Bain, who had four sacks and now has 27 for the season, surpassing Dwight Jackson’s single-season team record of 25 in
2010. “We just put it on them and didn’t look back. We’re the ones with the state titles, so if anybody should be doing the talking it’s us, but we don’t play that game around here. We just do our talking on the field and that’s exactly what we went out and did.”
After Killian’s Keshwan Renejuste returned the game’s opening kickoff 93 yards to Central’s 2-yard line, it appeared the Cougars were going to make the early statement, but Alfonzo Allen broke through and dropped Robby Washington for a 5-yard loss on the first play from scrimmage, then Caleb McKenzie intercepted Killian quarterback Khalil Anglin on third-and-goal, with the help of a hit by Bain, to end the threat. The Rockets then drove 80 yards in eight plays and Jonathan Harris ran for a 6-yard touchdown to put Central ahead 7-0. The tone for the night had been set.
“They were hyped up and talking a lot of noise all through week coming in here 12-0, and we expected them to make a few big plays,” Central coach Roland Smith said. “But we just had to calm down, and when we got on defense and didn’t let them in the end zone, got the big interception and went right down to go up 7-0, that was a pretty big momentum swing. And the rest was history.”
Killian did answer back briefly when Anglin found Javon Robinson for a 63-yard touchdown to cut Central’s lead to 7-6, but the Rockets weren’t phased. Quarterback Keyone Jenkins, who shared time with Dylon Tulloch but took the majority of snaps, found Ean Pope for a 21-yard score midway through the second quarter to make it 14-6 before Jayden John nailed a 26-yard field goal seconds before halftime to put the Rockets up 17-6 at the break.
Central’s Trent Henry then returned the secondhalf kickoff 62 yards to give his team a short field at the Killian 22 that the Rockets turned into seven more points on a 1-yard quarterback keeper by Jenkins. Central, ranked No. 23 in the nation by MaxPreps, went up 24-6 and was in complete control.
Jenkins, who finished a productive night 10 of 12 for 140 yards and two touchdowns, indicated that he was as social media target during the week.
“They were talking like No. 22 was going to knock my head off and when somebody comes at me like that, I take that personally,” Jenkins said. “The only heads that knocked off tonight were theirs. Their season is over, we’re moving on.”
The Cougars managed to put a long drive together late in the third quarter, cutting the Central lead to 24-13 on a 4-yard touchdown run by Ryan Bullard, but the Rockets didn’t blink. Tulloch entered the game and tossed a 42-yard touchdown to a wide-open Zaylan Reese to make it 31-13 with 8:37 left. Central tacked on one more touchdown with a 4-yard pass from Jenkins to Lamar Seymore with 2:41 left.
Perhaps Smith was sending a message to the Killian side when he went for two on the play and got it.