Sauerwein tosses four touchdown passes: Jersey-Centralia play to wire, but Panthers fall

CENTRALIA - Jersey and Centralia played to the final wire on Friday night, with the Orphans emerging a 56-52 winner.

Jersey and Centralia were tied at 14-14 at the end of one and the Panthers ahead 24-21 at the half. Centralia outscored the Panthers 14-8 in the third period and 21-20 in the fourth quarter for the final score of 56-52.

Jersey got on the board first with an 11-yard touchdown pass from Sauerwein to Medford. Wittman caught the next touchdown for 68 yards. Brandt ran 3 yards for the next score, Brett Title connected on a 31-yard field goal for the next score to round out first-half scoring. In the second half, Sauerwein tossed a 47-yard TD pass to Hall and another 15-yard run by Sauerwein put the Panthers on the board again. Sauerwein ran for 1 yard and tossed a 10-yard TD pass to Wittman for the final Panther score.

Jersey quarterback Drew Sauerwein completed 31 of 46 passes for 447 yards and four touchdowns and no interceptions in almost a flawless game. His favorite receiver Blake Wittman grabbed 11 catches for 167 yards and two touchdowns; Kurt Hall had eight catches for 148 yards and a touchdown and Matthew Jackson had four catches for 59 yards. Will Medford caught three passes for 51 yards and a touchdown. Brett Tuttle had four receptions for 17 yards and Jack Brandt had one catch for 5 yards.

The multi-purpose Sauerwein ran 13 times for 45 yards to lead Jersey. Jack Brandt ran 10 times for 41 yards.

Tuttle had 7.5 tackles to lead the Panthers; Wittman, Zeke Waltz and Jon Woelfel all had 7 tackles.

“We stood toe-to-toe with the number-10 ranked team in the state at their place,” Coach Jon Adkins said about his Jersey team. “We are going to have to come back and work even harder next week as we prepare for a showdown with Highland.”

OTHER LATE SCORES:

Pleasant Hill 52, North Greene 0
Greenfield-Northwestern 26, West Central 8

Greenfield-Northwestern fullback Jacob Foiles rushed for 96 yards and scored two touchdowns on a 1-yard run and 5-yard run.

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