CUNNINGHAM, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – Under a steady rain with temperatures dipping into the 40s on Friday, ninth-ranked Montgomery Central football hosted 10th-ranked Springfield in a Region 5-4A showdown for its homecoming.
The Indians leaned on their senior-led offensive line and senior running back LaKendriez “Drez” Sanders who finished the game with 41 carries for 157 yards and a touchdown in a 13-10 win over the Yellowjackets.
“Really I feel good, but at the same time I really don’t feel anything at all,” Sanders said. “It doesn’t even feel like I ran the ball that many times. I’m just glad we got the win.”
Springfield had trouble hanging onto the ball throughout in the wet conditions. Yellowjacket quarterback Kevontez Hudson bobbled the snap and Casen Cunningham came away with the loose ball, sealing a huge region win for the Indians late in the fourth quarter.
Montgomery Central football coach Jeff Tomlinson shared just how big the game was for his group.
“It’s huge for playoff implications,” Tomlinson said. “It’s also huge because now we hold our own destiny in the region. With Casen, he flies around all over the place. He makes plays for us and made another big one tonight.”
Sanders, who went over 1,000 yards rushing for the season, put the Indians on the board first with a six-yard touchdown run, making it 7-0 Montgomery Central after one quarter of play.
“It feels good,” Sanders said of his role in the offense. “I believe in my O-line. They keep pushing me. The fans, the student section, the coaches, my brother (Michael Payton) right here keep telling me, ‘you got this’. I trust and love our defense. They said, ‘we get this stop for you, you go out and win us the ballgame’. I said I got you.”
Midway through the second quarter, Payton couldn’t corral the Yellowjacket punt and Springfield recovered the ball at the Indian six-yard line. The turnover led to six easy points for the opposition, as Hudson ran it in for the score. After the successful point-after attempt, the game was tied at 7-7.
“Let it go, move on, it’s okay, everybody makes mistakes and we have a lot of football left to play,” Tomlinson said to Payton after the miscue. “You can’t hound on a kid there. He regrouped and made huge touchdown-saving tackles on defense for us.”
After a pair of false start penalties forced the Indians to punt from the back of their own end zone, the Yellowjackets would have outstanding field position from the Central 19-yard line.
With less than five seconds remaining in the first half, Luis Diaz drilled a 41-yard field goal, giving Springfield a 10-7 advantage at the break.
The Yellowjackets keyed on the Indian run game and took advantage of short fields to rattle off 10 unanswered points to take the lead.
Late in the third quarter after Kevontay White picked off Logan Sykes in the end zone on second-and-short, Central’s defense came up with another huge stop to give the ball back to the offense.
The Indians then put together a methodical eight-minute drive that was capped off with a Logan Sykes game-winning touchdown. With four minutes remaining in the contest, the Indians quarterback kept it himself and scored from two-yards out to regain the lead 13-10.
Montgomery Central (7-1, 3-1) travels to take on White House Friday, Oct. 25 and then closes out the regular season Friday, Nov. 1 at home against White House-Heritage.
“Don’t get the big head,” Sanders said of the team’s mindset as the season winds down. “Keep going. We get those two teams out of the way, we host our playoff game and make history.”
Springfield (4-3, 2-1) hosts Portland (4-4, 3-1) Friday, Oct. 25 in another crucial region contest. The Panthers remain atop of the Region 5-4A standings with the tiebreak win over Montgomery Central earlier in the season.