MIDDLEBURG – Friday night’s season opener between Central Columbia and Midd West was a matchup of a pair of teams that managed just a single win between them last season. So, it essentially provided a golden opportunity for one of the teams to have an equally or more successful season that it did in 2023 in just the first game of the season.
In the end, it was Central that seized the opportunity, as the Bluejays racked up 359 rushing yards behind a 140-yard performance by Ty Regan, and Central dominated the line of scrimmage on defense as well, holding Midd West to just 129 yards of offense and just 41 on the ground, as the Bluejays equaled their win total from last year in just one game with a 41-0 win over the Mustangs.
“If you go back and look at last year, we were so close, so many times. We had leads into the second half and couldn’t finish, so I’m just so proud of our kids,” said Central coach E.J. Smith. “They work really hard and I love coaching this team, it’s a great team.”
Central lost three games by just a single possession last season, and while it remains to be seen how the Bluejays will perform in closer games this season, it showed it will be competitive if the ground game functions similar to how it did in Friday’s opener.
Regan scored a pair of touchdowns – both in the second quarter – to go with his 140 yards on 17 carries, while Aidan Huntington also found the end zone twice on just five carries, which produced 84 yards. The third leg of Central’s three-man backfield, Gaje Gombert, had 44 yards on just three carries.
“That was our goal, to dominate the lines,” said Smith. “We brought in a new offensive coordinator, Dave Wood. I love his system. The kids have bought into it and we’ve been working at this for a long time and the kids are starting to see it pay off. We have a lot of versatile kids. They know all three (backfield) positions and we just mix and match and try to keep them fresh because we don’t have huge numbers, but we have great kids, and they’ve worked really hard.”
Central managed its big game on the ground despite being hampered by penalties, which Midd West was mostly unable to take advantage of. The Bluejays committed 10 penalties for 90 yards, including seven for 65 in the first half alone. But none ended up hurting them too badly, as Central had nine plays that went for 15 or more yards.
“That’s not always going to be the case (overcoming the penalties), so that’s what I talked to them about at halftime about how those penalties will kill them, and they’re just dumb and we can’t do that. They know that, so we just need to keep working to get better,” said Smith.
Despite the loss, which on the surface seemed like more of the same from last year when the Mustangs were shutout in seven of their 10 losses, Midd West’s first-year head coach Jeff Janovich was pleased with his team’s effort and remains quite optimistic for the remainder of the season.
“I thought we played with a ton of heart. That’s a lot of change coming from the last couple of years and making sure we can stick and keep our heads up through four quarters,” said Janovich. “Step one is just being able to compete and I thought we stuck with them for the entire first half. Second half, we got a little tired, so we have some things to tweak.
“We’ve got new schemes both offensively and defensively, guys have been picking it up all summer and this is just the start of something special. We just need to improve our execution.”
Central’s first possession of the game was an omen of what was to come. After stopping the Mustangs three-and-out, the Bluejays took over near midfield and put together a nine-play, 48-yard drive that overcame three penalties and ended with Huntington’s first touchdown of the night, an eight-yard run, at the 5:10 mark of the first quarter.
Central’s ensuing possession ended with a fumbled snap on a punt, resulting in a 15-yard loss and giving Midd West the ball at the Bluejays 23-yard line.
But Central’s defense bore down and managed to stop the Mustangs on fourth-and-goal from the 4-yard line, overcoming a 15-yard personal foul penalty that had given Midd West a first-and-goal from the 7.
From there, the Bluejays went 96 yards in nine more plays, this time ending with a Regan three-yard touchdown. Central got a 31-yard run from Gombert and a 25-yard run by Crue Chipeleski on that drive, which helped counter two additional penalties that had pushed the Bluejays in the wrong direction.
After picking up its first first down of the game, Midd West’s ensuing possession ended on a fourth-and-5 play from the Central 32 when Alex Zeisloft picked off Mason Fultz’s pass throwing across his body, and Zeisloft returned the pick 56 yards all the way down to the Mustang 29-yard line. Two plays later, Regan had his second touchdown of the night on a 22-yard run at the 4:10 mark of the second quarter.
Later in the quarter, a 17-yard punt return by Huntington set up Central at the Midd West 39. Six plays later, with the clock running down on the first half, quarterback Parker Day made the most out of a broken passing play as he used his legs to improvise and turn it into a 14-yard touchdown. Day then hit Huntington in the end zone for two to give Central a 28-0 lead heading into halftime.
The Bluejays put the game into the mercy rule about midway through the third quarter when Huntington notched his second score of the game on a 38-yard touchdown run.
Later, with the clock in running time, Central managed to chew up nearly eight minutes of the fourth quarter as it put together a 14-play, 93-yard drive capped by Logan Robbins’ eight-yard touchdown run.
Central Columbia 41, Midd West 0
Central Columbia (1-0) 7 21 7 6 – 41
Midd-West (0-1) 0 0 0 0 – 0
First quarter
5:10 – (C) Aidan Huntington 8-yard run (Blake kick), 9-48, 4:27
Second quarter
8:04 – (C) Ty Regan 3-yard run (Blake kick), 9-96, 3:51
4:10 – (C) Ty Regan 22-yard run (kick failed), 2-29, :50
:25 – (C) Parker Day 14-yard run (Huntington pass from Day), 6-39, 1:50
Third quarter
6:56 – (C) Aidan Huntington 38-yard run (Blake kick), 2-46, :55
Fourth quarter
3:07 – (C) Logan Robbin’s 8-yard run (run failed), 14-93, 7:59
Statistics
CC MW
First downs 21 6
Rushes-net yards 43-359 22-41
Passing yardage 12 88
Passing 2-9-0-0 9-21-0-1
Fumbles-lost 4-0 2-0
Penalties-yards 10-90 2-10
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Central Columbia: Ty Regan (17-140-2); Aidan Huntington (5-84-2); Aiden Mahamadou (4-17); Tanner Regan (3-48); Gaje Gombert (3-44); Logan Robbins (3-15-1); Crue Chipeleski (2-22); Parker Day (2-10-1); Cole Horrax (2-(-1)); Dylan Shultz (1-(-15)); TEAM (1-(-5)); Midd-West: Mason Fultz (11-7); Kyle Shupp (7-31); Landon Hartman (4-3)
PASSING: Central Columbia: Parker Day (2-9-12-0-0); Midd-West: Mason Fultz (9-21-88-0-1)
RECEIVING: Central Columbia: Jansen Sarisky (1-7); Aidan Huntington (1-5); Midd-West: Kyle Shupp (5-54); Keaton Kreider (2-22); Landon Hartman (1-13); Brady Janovich (1-(-1))
