Football: Coon Rapids was tossed by Centennial

by Tom Yelle
SportsPrepZone

Coon Rapids ' bid to be the Northwest Suburban championship spoiler for Centennial lasted just one half Tuesday night. And one half was not enough, especially when the end result was a 41-7 Centennial victory.

With the win, Centennial earned a share of conference championship with Blaine at 7 wins and 1 defeat. It was the first football Northwest Suburban title won by Centennial since it joined the conference. It also  locked up the second-seeded position for next week's Section 7AAAAA playoffs and a first-round game against St. Francis .

Coon Rapids , meantime, finished 2-6 in the conference standings and garnered either the sixth- or seventh-seeded position for 7AAAAA play next week and will play at either Andover or back at Centennial.

It could have been better for Coon Rapids , however. A strong first-half performance -- both on offense and defense -- kept it in the game and down just one touchdown over half time. Coon Rapids , in fact, owned all but 89 seconds of the first quarter when it drove 94 yards after Centennial's opening kickoff was downed on the 5-yard line to come within inches of the goal line. But on second and goal from inside the one, Coon Rapids could not find the remaining yardage and was ultimately stopped for a loss on fourth down at the 2-yard line.

After a fourth down, fake punt and pass that was intercepted, Centennial took over at the 48 and quickly moved in to score first. The touchdown came on a Chris Anderson-to-Mike Golis 16-yard pass to the right side of the end zone for a 7-0 lead, but Coon Rapids countered almost as fast.

First, defensively: with a blocked punt by Shaquille Theus which set up the offense on Centennial's 31. And second: with a first-down throw-back pass from quarterback Brandon Flippen to receiver Malcolm Farley to complete one-play a 31-yard touchdown drive.

Anderson, however, was unrelenting and found Golis with less than a half minute remaining in the first half, this time from 37 yards, to set the half time score at 14-7. It also set the stage for a Centennial second-half onslaught that was executed during a 7-minute, 7-second period of third quarter time.

A couple of Coon Rapids fumbles expedited the process.

The first came at the 17-yard line on Coon Rapids ' second play of the third quarter. One play later Anderson connected with Golis for the third straight time on a touchdown pass play to make it 21-7. Centennial used good field position following a Coon Rapids punt to move in for its fourth touchdown of the game, a 43-yard jaunt by running back Adam LaMere, then collected the second fumble at the 15-yard line to set up touchdown No. 5 -- a fourth-down, 4-yard run by Anderson.

Centennial's only negative moment of the third quarter was a missed extra point after the fifth touchdown to leave the score 34-7.  It became 41-7 late in the fourth quarter when Centennial reserve running back Joe Richardson scored from 34 yards out.