Published November 03, 2009 12:53 am - History was made at Paul Johnson Field on Monday night.
The fourth-ranked Centerville Big Red football team can now claim the most wins in school history.
Big Reds blast Clippers; Pella awaits
By KELLY TERPSTRA, Courier sports writer
CENTERVILLE — History was made at Paul Johnson Field on Monday night.
The fourth-ranked Centerville Big Red football team can now claim the most wins in school history.
Leave it to star running back Tanner Susin to say what every Big Red fan is thinking.
“We want more.”
The fourth-ranked Big Reds ran their record to a perfect 11-0 after gashing Clear Creek-Amana 30-13 in the first round of the Class 3A state playoffs.
Centerville will play at Pella (8-3) for the right to play in the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls in Friday night’s quarterfinal round.
Centerville defeated the Dutch 44-43 on a two-point conversion by Susin in overtime in the regular season.
The dominant victory for head coach Jim Knott’s team over CC-A is the first playoff win in school history. The Clippers were playing in their first playoff game ever.
“I don’t know how we could have done much better. If you would have told me we would have been up 30-0 at halftime, I would have been pretty dang happy about it,” said Knott.
The Big Reds raced out to that large halftime lead and held the top passing team in the state to just 188 total yards. The Clippers came into the contest averaging over 400 yards of total offense but were held to just 55 yards in the first half.
That was all Centerville needed to pound the rock behind Susin, who ran over, around and through would-be Clipper tacklers.
Susin, a senior, finished with 190 yards on the ground and scored three times – all in the first half.
The Big Reds scored on their first four possessions of the game and locked down CC-A’s Blaze Smith — who broke the state record for completions (43) in a game earlier in the year.
Smith finished 28-41 through the air for 204 yards and did not lead his team into the end zone until their were nine ticks left on the third-quarter clock.
Susin showed off his bruising style with scoring runs of 4, 5, and 54. The last score made it 30-0 with 6:28 remaining in the half.