JH beats Centralia for first time since 2003 to end season
Jackson Heights High School’s Cobra varsity football team ended its 2016 season on a high note, beating a team it had not beaten since 2003.
The Cobras’ hard-won 22-14 victory over Centralia at home on Friday marked the end of another year, but with a 6-3 record and an unbeaten record in the Northeast Kansas League, Head Coach Caleb Wick said his team had ample reason to be proud of its accomplishments this year.
“It was a good win,” Wick said. “It got really intense in the last three minutes, when it seemed at times like we were playing against two teams.”
Wick said Friday’s win was closer than it seemed because of several penalties — the Cobras had 10, while the Panthers only had one — including a pass interference call that was “probably one of the worst I’ve seen since I’ve been here.”
“A lot of things didn’t happen our way in the fourth quarter, but the guys were sticking to the course and not getting their heads down,” he added.
Friday was also senior night for the Cobras, and Mason Hamilton, with a pair of touchdown scores, was “definitely our MVP for the night,” Wick said.
The scoring began in the first quarter with Jackson Heights picking up six on a 53-yard run by Mason Thomas, followed by Brady Holliday tacking on two more on the post-TD conversion. The Panthers tied it before the quarter expired on a 14-yard TD run and a conversion pass by Kamble Haverkamp.
The second quarter was all Hamilton and the Cobras, with Hamilton picking up a 36-yard TD run and a 44-yard TD run, taking the score to 22-0 at the half. The Panthers waited until the fourth quarter to add another six on another touchdown pass from Haverkamp.
In addition to Hamilton, who had 71 yards rushing on the night, Thomas carried the ball for 93 yards and Holliday rushed for 78, with the team totaling 297 rushing yards on 43 carries — not a bad average to close out the season, Wick said.
And even though the three non-league losses in the middle of the season were what kept the Cobras from a playoff spot, Wick said the fact that his team fought their best in those games — in addition to the NEK league title — are a fair trade-off.
“You look back and you hate to look at scores — we lost to Valley Heights by 4 and Washington County by 8 — but I think the kids know that we were right there with some of the toughest districts, top to bottom, in the state. I’m proud of them,” Wick said.
The Cobras’ defeat of the Panthers dropped Centralia to a final record of 1-8.