Centennial holds off Las Vegas 21-15

Sometimes, the scoreboard doesn’t tell the full story.

Centennial dominated the first quarter Saturday night, but came away with no points. The fourth quarter was all Las Vegas High, but it was Centennial that came out on top in the end, holding off the Wildcats for a 21-15 road victory.

“It was one of those games where we just made enough plays in the second half,” Centennial coach Leon Evans said.

The fourth-ranked Bulldogs (4-0) drove to at least the Las Vegas 22 on their first four drives, including three times inside the 20. But Centennial had nothing to show for that effort.

“That’s kind of been our season,” Evans said. “We drive it down there. We just haven’t put it across the goal line. We’ve got to do a better job of that when we get in the red zone.”

Key penalties, big losses and an interception stalled all of those drives, but the Bulldogs finally got on the board in the second quarter when Juan Rodriguez found Brandan Harley streaking down the right sideline and hit him with a 56-yard TD pass with 6:59 to go in the first half.

That gave Centennial a 7-0 lead, and the Bulldogs wouldn’t trail.

“The touchdown early to Harley was big for us,” Evans said.

So was a defensive play by junior linebacker Tishawn Barnaby. Eight-ranked Las Vegas (2-2) drove to the Centennial 16 in the final minute of the first half. But on third-and-10, Barnaby picked off a Trevor Swenson pass and raced 91 yards down the right sideline for a touchdown and a 14-0 halftime lead.

Centennial pushed the lead to 21-0 with 2:24 to go in the third quarter on an 11-yard TD pass from Rodriguez to Andre Meiers.

Las Vegas, meanwhile, managed just 133 yards of offense in the first three quarters and was unable to take advantage of an interception and two blocked punts.

Things turned in the fourth quarter as the Wildcats leaned on freshman Elijah Hicks.

Hicks ripped off a 64-yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter to put Las Vegas on the board with 11:38 to play. Hicks appeared to be stopped after about 5 yards, but spun out of a tackle, cut outside and then back inside to elude Centennial tacklers.

Centennial appeared ready to extend its lead when Astrid Catalan bobbled the snap on a punt for Las Vegas and was stopped for a 12-yard loss at the Wildcat 22.

But Rhamondre Stevenson, who had a huge first half for Centennial with 142 yards on 16 carries, fumbled on the first play of that drive, and Hicks made the Bulldogs pay.

He went 88 yards for his second touchdown on the next play, cutting the Centennial lead to 21-12 with 8:33 to go.

“We played Elijah Hicks, our freshman running back/receiver, and he did some good things for us there, obviously,” Las Vegas coach James Thurman said. “We just keep throwing darts at the board and something’s going to stick.”

Stevenson then fumbled on his next carry, and that set up a 22-yard field goal by Catalan that made it 21-15 with 7:07 to play.

The Bulldogs picked up some key first downs late to survive.

Stevenson, who finished with 177 yards on 31 carries for Centennial, picked up a huge first down on fourth-and-1 from the Centennial 49 with 2:35 to play. Then Centennial picked up another first down on a fourth-down penalty on Las Vegas.

“For us to fight through that shows the resolve these kids have to get through it,” Evans said. “I’m proud of these kids.”

Hicks finished with 172 yards on 11 carries to go along with two catches for 51 yards.

“We’ve got to win a football game, but we got some emotion on the sideline finally and got some kids that stepped up and made plays,” Thurman said. “They competed in the second half. If we’d done that the whole game, it could have been a different story. But they’re too good a program to throw away a first half like we did.”

Contact prep sports editor Damon Seiters at dseiters@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4587. Follow him on Twitter: @DamonSeiters.