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Football: Quick burst leads Wildcats past Cougars
Updated: October 1, 2011 12:38AM
It took Plainfield Central seven seconds to ruin Plainfield South’s Homecoming Friday.
The Wildcats scored two touchdowns within seven seconds in the first quarter en route to a 26-19 Southwest Prairie Conference win over the Cougars.
Tim Blake threw for three touchdowns and Jordan Ellingwood reached paydirt three times to put Plainfield Central (4-2, 2-2 in the SPC) a win away from playoff consideration. Plainfield South fell to 3-3, 2-2.
“I thought it would be something like this,” Plainfield Central coach John Jackson said. “We knew we were going to have to score and play the field position game.”
Mike Leffler recovered a fumbled punt that led to Blake’s first touchdown pass of 10 yards to Ellingwood with 9:07 left in the first quarter.
Derek Bernascik pounced on a fumbled kick off and Blake found Gino Gerritano from 24 yards away for a 13-0 lead with 9:00 left in the first quarter.
“We knew they were going to make mistakes and we had to capitalize on them,” said Blake, who went 10 of 16 for 151 yards.
“The first quarter, we knew we had to come out hard,” Ellingwood said. “That’s what we did. We capitalized on their mistakes and their turnovers.”
Ellingwood rushed 16 times for 96 yards and added a third-quarter touchdown run. The junior also caught five passes for 52 yards and two touchdowns, including a 6-yarder from Blake that gave the visitors a 20-0 lead with 7:58 to play in the second quarter.
Plainfield South got on the board when Ricky Luna threw 23 yards to Josh Harris to cut the lead to 20-6 at the half.
Austin Howarth’s 7-yard touchdown pass to Dantrell Wright with 5:40 left in the third quarter put the Cougars within 20-13.
Ellingwood’s 10-yard run with 1:54 left in the third bumped the lead to 26-13.
Howarth’s second touchdown pass went to Joshua Harris from 14 yards out, cutting the deficit to 26-19 with 6:02 left in the game.
Plainfield South’s final drive ended at the Plainfield Central 38 with 1:40 left in the game.
Howarth went 24 of 42 for 292 yards. Wright caught 12 passes for 115 yards. However, the Cougars rushed for just 17 yards.
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