Central runs for state-championship record 498 yards to rout Escambia in 6A title game
Central couldn’t help but be a little insulted when it saw how Pensacola Escambia lined up on defense to start the Class 6A championship. The Rockets had seen Escambia’s 4-2-5 alignment on film and knew they could exploit it if the Gators stuck with it Thursday at Daytona Stadium.
Escambia tried it anyway. The Gators sent four defensive linemen and two linebackers into the box, and left five defensive backs to account for Central’s passing attack, so the Rockets did what they like to do most: They ran the ball over and over all the way to a 62-27 win.
“That 4-2 box is beatable,” quarterback Katravis Marsh said. “Don’t ever play us with a 4-2 box. We feel like that’s disrespectful.”
Amari Daniels, a four-star all-purpose back in the 247Sports.com composite rankings for the Class of 2021, ran for 188 yards and four touchdowns on 16 carries. Kejon Owens, who is orally committed to the FIU Panthers, ran for 165 yards and three touchdowns on 10 carries. Even Juan Henry, the third running back in the rotation in Daytona Beach, ran for 116 yards on 12 carries.
Central (12-3) finished with 498 yards on the ground, breaking the state-championship record of 453 set by Blountstown in the Class 1A championship Saturday. Four different Rockets combined to run for eight touchdowns and Central averaged 11.1 yards per carry. Seven of the Rockets’ runs went for at least 20 yards. For the sixth time this decade, Central hoisted a state-championship trophy.
The first of those 20-yard runs came on the very first offensive play of the game. Daniels ran to his right, cut to his left and ran through a gaping hole in Escambia’s defense 76 yards into the end zone. Less than two minutes into the state championship, the Rockets already had a 7-0 lead.
Less than two minutes later, Central faced a fourth-and-10 at the Gators’ 27-yard line. Three straight passes failed, so the Rockets went back to basics. Daniels took another hand-off, made one cut, found another hole and raced into the end zone again. The lead was 14-0 just a little more than three minutes into the game and it grew to 21-0 before the end of the first quarter on another touchdown run by Daniels.
“One thing about Central: We will run the ball. We can run the ball,” Daniels said. “We keep a team honest, but when things get hectic, when things go wrong, we’re running the ball.”
Escambia (14-1) never got to deal with a worn-down running back. Owens and Henry each spelled Daniels well enough to pile up 100 yards. When Henry gashed the Gators’ defense for a 40-yard run in the second quarter, the Rockets could simply insert Owens to punch in the 1-yard touchdown. With Owens pressed into playing defensive back for the first time in his high school career — he grabbed an interception just before halftime —Central could limit an important two-way player to 10 carries.
The Rockets never really had to throw the ball, either, but even in those rare instances they did, Escambia couldn’t slow Marsh.
Central’s defense struggled throughout the first half, so they wanted to build on their 35-19 when they took over at their own 20-yard line with 1:09 left in the half. The Rockets tried to run once, then let their star quarterback run a one-minute drill. Marsh hit on one deep shot for 45 yards to wide receiver Lamar Seymore, then spiked the ball as the clock ticked past 30 seconds. He took one more deep shot, this time to Yulkeith Brown and the star athlete simply ran past the Gators’ defense to haul in a 30-yard touchdown with 18.6 seconds. Central took a commanding 41-19 lead into halftime.
Marsh finished 10 of 15 with 139 yards and one touchdown, and added another touchdown and 19 yards on five carries. The Rockets were good enough Thursday to be one-dimensional.
“We played the best ball, I thought, to end the season, than any team in South Florida or any team in the doggone state of Florida,” coach Roland Smith said. “I told my kids it was about us in the doggone state. We were trying to make sure when people come to this doggone stadium and watch all the classifications week in and week out, that Miami Central was the best team that they saw on the big stage that night and that’s what it was about tonight, being the best we could possibly be.”
This story was originally published December 12, 2019 at 10:03 PM.
