WEATHERFORD, TX-- Central held off a fight from the Weatherford Kangaroos to earn a 26-21 win to open District 3-6A. The win came with a few new faces on the field for the Bobcats after four players were suspended.
Central head coach Brent Davis praised his team for fighting through the adversity.
"In the predicament we're in, we're just trying to get in here and find a way to win this thing and get home," Davis said. "So, I'm proud of our players for having the adverse week and stepping up and playing well."
Another key player out of the lineup today was wide receiver Philip Lupton with a foot injury which Davis said "doesn't look good."
The Bobcats posted 260 yards of total offense in the win.
WATCH: Coach Brent Davis on the win over Weatherford:
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Sophomore QB Malachi Brown rushed for 112 yards on 18 carries for a pair of touchdowns. The sophomore gunslinger also threw for 105 yards and a pair of scores on 10 completions. He also had a pair of interceptions in his third start. Davis said those interceptions came from Brown trying to "place the ball instead of just throwing it and being yourself."
"He's not going to be mistake-free. We know that," Davis added. "But he's a playmaker. He makes more plays than he doesn't...He carried us tonight with a bunch of first downs."
Defensively, the Bobcats held Weatherford and their star QB Ken Seals to just 281 yards of offense.
"That's real encouraging," Davis said of his defense. "We had some young kids tonight that hadn't played any varsity football starting for us.
Seals completed 20 of 37 passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns with one interception. He was also sacked three times by the Bobcats. Central's Daylon Green and Anthony Gonzales each tallied one sack each. Xy'Kerion Paulk and Tristan Lopez teamed up to sack Seals a third time. That was Gonzales' fourth sack in two weeks.
"Anthony has really come on in the last couple of weeks," Davis said. "At the beginning, he wasn't starting and he kept working. He didn't get his head down. He just kept workin' and workin' and proved himself in practice and had two great games. Last week against Pebble Hills, he played unbelievable and, tonight, he did again."
Brown opened the scoring for Central in the second quarter with a 13-yard touchdown run. A missed extra point made it 6-0 Central with 10:47 left in the first half.
Weatherford responded on the next drive with a 53-yard pass from Seals to Peyton Hudson. Alex Rodriguez’s extra point made it 7-6 Weatherford midway through the second.
The Halftime report with Sam Fowler & Joe Hyde:
The Kangaroos tacked on another TD in the half on a 1-yard run by Thayne Garnett to go up 14-6 late in the second.
Central responded to pull within two when Malachi Brown fielded a snap over his head. The sophomore had the wherewithal to stay calm and find Tyler Arispe for a 14-yard touchdown. A failed two-point conversion made it 14-12 at the half. Initially, the Bobcats were trying to draw Weatherford offsides before the errant snap sailed over Brown's helmet.
"[The defensive linemen] jumped, but they didn't call it," the sophomore said.
Offensive coordinator Kevin Crane praised the sophomore's poise in just his third career start.
"He's real poised, you know," Crane said. "He kinda had some bad things happen and he overcame them. It was good to see and we've seen that from him before. It's important at the quarterback position to be poised and I think you're seeing it from him."
Central came out and tacked on two more touchdowns in the second half. Brown threw for one and rushed for another.
Seals found Wes Hanson in the corner of the endzone to make it 26-21, but Weatherford could not stop Central’s offense.
The Bobcats improve to 4-1 and 1-0 in District 3-6A. Next they’ll host Euless Trinity on Oct. 5.
The Trojans beat Hurst L.D. Bell 40-13 on Thursday.
"They're a perennial powerhouse statewide," Davis said. "They're well-known. But it's a district game for us, it's a home game. We play good at home. We're lookin' forward to it."
The final score report with Sam Fowler:
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