Wildcats round up Bison 24-10

Central sets up Mt. Juliet showdown of 8-1 teams

By ANDY REED

Sports Editor

GALLATIN — Once Wilson Central stopped shooting itself in the foot Friday night, the Wildcats put together a solid game to stop Station Camp 24-10.

A 34-yard interception return by Josh Malone set up Nick Reininger's 2-yard touchdown run on Station Camp's first offensive play.

Isaiah Demonbreun recovered a Central fumble on the next series, but the Wildcat defense held and allowed Station Camp just 35 first-half yards.

"Definitely not the way we wanted to start out," said Central coach Brad Dedman, whose Wildcats kept their end of the bargain to set up next Thursday's showdown with Mt. Juliet at 8-1, 5-1 in District 9-AAA. "Our defensive line came out and played well.

"Our defense is pretty good when we want to be."

Central's offense got untracked late in the first quarter. Jordan Roundtree hit Chris Lee with a 24-yard pass and Kaleb Butler ran for 24 more before Lee won a jump ball in the end zone from 15 yards out to tie the score 7-7 in the opening minute of the second quarter.

Station Camp, which was celebrating Senior Night, was without running back Jaquel Fitts. Central double-teamed the dangerous Malone on the outside while Rod Crutchfield and Trey Givens sacked Kyle Anderton twice on the same series, the latter on fourth down at the Wildcat 44-yard line.

Roundtree, who bounced back from his first-pass pickoff to complete 4 of 10 for 87 yards, found Lee again for 34 yards over the middle to the 3. Butler, who led all rushers with 96 yards on 18 carries, burrowed into the end zone from a yard out for a 14-7 lead midway through the second.

Central's defense stopped Station Camp again and Butler ran the Wildcats into position for Brad Cavonough's 30-yard field goal for a 17-7 halftime lead.

The Bison finally put together their best drive of the night behind a couple of Anderton completions and some solid running by Reininger and Jeremy Pickel. Facing fourth and 3 from the 4, Coach Shawn Hollinsworth, a former Mt. Juliet and Cumberland player, went with the math and sent in the reliable Kasey Kammerzell, whose 20-yard field goal [just a yard longer than an extra point], brought the Bison within 17-10 late in the third period.

Then it was Dedman's turn to make a decision to kick on fourth and short as he sent in Cavanough to punt the ball away from midfield. The kick went out of bounds at the 10.

"I was playing the field-position war there and if they were going to tie it up, they were going to have to drive the length of the field on us," Dedman said. "Preston Reed made a good play, making the fumble happen and we took it from there, taking it into the end zone."

Reed sacked Anderton on third down and forced a fumble which he also recovered at the 2. Roundtree snuck it over the line on second down for a two-touchdown lead with less than 10 minutes to play.

Needing scores in a hurry, Station Camp drove methodically to the Central 34 from where Malone, a Division I prospect as a junior, got the ball on a double handoff, rolled out and threw the ball to Central defensive back Eric Simmons.

Central drove the ball to the Station Camp 9 as time expired and the Bison fell to 4-5, 2-4.

Station Camp collected 126 total yards. Reininger led the Bison runners with 62 yards on 18 carries while Anderton hit half of his 10 passes for 42 yards while being sacked three times.

"We decided coming in to put a little pressure on him," Dedman said. "When we found out [Fitts] was out, we thought they would try throw it a little bit more so we tried to put a little more pressure on him."

Next up for Central is a visit from Mt. Juliet at 7 p.m. next Thursday in the season finale of MyTV30's Thursday Night Lights series in a battle of 8-1 teams shooting for second place in the district.

"It's going to be a good football game, good football environment," Dedman said. "It's good for Wilson County, two teams that are 8-1, that's good for everybody."

Sports Editor Andy Reed can be reached at 444-3952, ext. 17; or by email at andy.reed@lebanondemocrat.com