Central Whips Belaire, So. Lab Handily

After a disappointing scrimmage before the regular season began, the Central Wildcats have played superb football in their first two games of the regular season.  They beat Belaire 59-6 and Southern Lab 47-7.

Is Coach Sid Edwards ready to declare that Central has a powerhouse offense this year? “Well, not yet,” he said with a smile, “but we’ve played really well so far on both sides of the ball.”  

Indeed they have!

Before the Belaire game, Coach Sid said, he was impressed with the numbers this year.  The Wildcats are large — the largest number of players in over a decade, 87 on the varsity and 60 on the freshman team. In addition, the team is physically large and powerful.

Why is Central coming on so strong this year?  Coach Sid thinks it may have a lot to do with Covid. There was no spring training, which left the men eager to get ready. They started working in the gym on June 10 and basically haven’t let up since them.  Normally, they would have played the jamboree the last week of August and the first regular season game the next week. But of course that didn’t happen.  As a result, they continued to work out and got even bigger and stronger. Plus with no games in September, they are getting close to district play with no serious injuries.

The season so far has been anything but typical. The Wildcats started play last Thursday against Belaire.  The game was played on Thursday because of a shortage of referees due to Covid. This week’s game was even more unusual.  Because of the impending hurricane, the Wildcats hosted Southern Lab on a Wednesday night, which may be a first for Central High football.

In analyzing play so far, Coach Sid said, “The ball has been spread around. No one guy has dominated play or carried us.  We’ve been impressive on offense.  Running backs Pierce Patterson and Cameron Brown have done particularly well.”

“Our junior quarterback Jonathan Swift has really stepped up. Jonathan has two years of varsity play as a running back and did very well.  He’s probably rushed for 1,500 yards the past two years.  But now he’s stepped in as quarterback and he brings a lot of talent.  I’m impressed by Jonathan. He’s a wonderful young man. Not a mark against him. He takes academics seriously, and he’s a workhorse.”

“We didn’t throw much against Southern Lab, we didn’t have to. The defense played very well and kept them in check all night.”

Coach Sid noted that one freshman is starting — center Andrew Richard, a young man to watch.

Next week, Central travels to Plaquemine, hopefully on Friday night.