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pass to pull the Mustangs within 8 with
9:24 to go in the game, No. 6 Central (10-1) turned to Cordary
Clark-Allen inside the tackles and Deon Hill on the perimeter
to put the game away.
Just as it has all season.
“We had to score. We didn’t want
another close game like last time,” said Clark-Allen, referring
to the Red Devils’ 32-29 win over the Mustangs on Sept. 25.
“The line blocked good, we executed, the running backs hit
the holes. We just run hard.”
Clark-Allen and Hill rushed nine times
for 74 yards on the drive, with Hill providing the dagger on a
5-yard run to put Central up 15 with 5 minutes to go.
With the defense’s fourth-down stop
inside the red zone on Stanhope’s next drive — the Mustangs
were 2-for-4 scoring inside the 20 on the game — the Red
Devils could officially start turning their attention to No. 2
Prattville, which dusted Dothan on Friday to move to the second
round.
“We gave them two big plays, but outside
of that we played about as well as we could play,” Central
coach Ron Nelson said. “It’s hard not to give up big
plays against that speed. That’s more speed on one football
team than I’ve ever seen.”
Milliner, the top recruit in the state
and an Alabama commit, was conspicuously absent the first time
around for Stanhope (5-6).
But this time he flashed that speed Nelson
was talking about, catching two passes for 84 yards, rushing for
39 yards and tallying 146 on returns.
Central just had too much.
After he was bottled up for 6 yards on
his first five carries, a 59-yard touchdown run late in the first
half put Hill on his way to a 172-yard performance with three
scores.
Clark-Allen caught a 33-yard touchdown
pass from Darren Daniel in the first quarter to put Central up
9-0 and also rushed for 79 yards, carrying about that many tacklers
throughout the course of the game.
Stanhope muffed two snaps and botched a
handoff, and Central was there to pounce on the fumble in all
three cases.
Even the special teams got into the act,
with Antonio King nailing a 47-yard field goal early in the second
quarter with about 10 yards to spare.
All that added up to not needing a blocked
field goal on the last play of the game this time around.
“We’ve come closer (since Sept.
25). We had meetings after practice, we started bonding together,”
Hill said. “Our motto was like, ‘One love. One heartbeat.’
And we played as one.”
Daniel finished 6-of-14 for 85 yards and
the touchdown, and the always-strong Red Devils ground attack
racked up 262 yards on 45 carries.
Stanhope quarterback Arsenio Favor, who
passed for almost 300 yards against Central the first time around,
was 3-of-14 for 21 yards on the night. Patrick Milliner led the
Mustangs in rushing with 58 yards on eight carries.
Next up for Central are the second-ranked
Lions, who have won 51 straight games against state teams.
“If you want to try and be the best,
you’ve gotta try and beat the best,” Nelson said. “We
respect Prattville, we know what they’ve done over the years.
But you just line up and play.”
And a trip to Prattville’s got to
be better than what the Red Devils were doing this time last year.
“We just want to show Phenix City
what we’re made of, put Phenix City back on the map,”
Hill said.
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