CLINTON - The Centreville Tigers went through a whole lot of work for a ring their coach might only wear once.
The Tigers 36-21 win on Friday night over Marshall Academy gave head coach Bill Hurst his seventh state championship in his career. It’s his first since 1999 when Centreville played in AAA.
“I’ve got them in boxes,” Hurst said of his six other rings. “I try them on to see if they fit when we get them, but there isn’t a reason to bring them out.”
The way Centreville won on Friday night certainly wasn’t a one-time occurrence.
Tiger fans watched Nick Goudeau and Zach Sinclair provide the majority of the offense all season long, and the pair came up with 290 combined yards rushing and four touchdowns on the biggest of stages.
“There ain’t no other two like them,” fellow running back and linebacker Hunter Brabham said.
Sinclair piled up 178 yards on 30 carries, including a lot after first being hit. Goudeau had 112 yards and did what he did best, breaking it right through the middle.
On the go-ahead drive in the fourth, Sinclair carried on seven of the 10 plays, including a huge fourth-down conversion where the nose of the ball was all that was sticking out from the chain.
Goudeau carried on the next two plays to score the go-ahead touchdown and he added the conversion for a 28-21 lead.
Marshall fumbled the kickoff and Centreville took over on the 16 before it took two fourth-down conversion for the Tigers to seal their victory.
Goudeau gained five yards on fourth-and-two from the 8, and Sinclair almost put the ball in the end zone on fourth-and-goal from the 3.
Sinclair was hit on about the 1-yard line and was able to stay up and push for the end zone, but as he reached for the line, the ball came loose.
Fortunately for Centreville, it bounced right to Hunter Brabham, who picked it up for a two-possession lead.
Both runners had their share of big plays as the Tigers had to come back from a 21-7 first-half deficit. With Marshall playing the inside run well in the first half, the Tigers bounced it outside to Sinclair, where he picked up good yardage for one good drive before intermission.
Sinclair carried the ball on six of the nine plays and ran in a 16-yard touchdown with 18 seconds left to cut the lead to 21-14.
Hurst said he told the team if they didn’t score on the first drive of the second hal,f it was going to be “a long, hard road,” for the rest of the game.
Goudeau broke a run for 22 yards and Anthony Lopez broke another for 27 to put the Tigers in the red zone, but a third-and-eight at the 13 was looking tough.
Hurst called for Boise State’s Statue of Liberty play from last year’s Fiesta Bowl. Sinclair picked up 12 yards before he was knocked out of bounds at the 1.
“We’ve practiced that every day at practice and we hadn’t shown it until now,” Hurst said.
“It worked though, didn’t it?” he added with a smile.
Goudeau ran it in from there, but the extra point was blocked by Marshall to keep the Patriots in the lead.
The Tigers defense also came up big in the second half. The front four were able to get pressure on Marshall’s quarterback and the defense held up much, better after giving up chunks of yardage in the first half.
The Patriots, coached by former Centreville assistant Keith Wicker, were able to strike for some big plays, but their best scoring chance of the night fell apart in the third quarter.
The Patriots made it down to the 26-yard line, but a third-down trick play lost 10 yards when wide receiver Wesley Harris tripped trying to plant to throw the ball. On fourth down, Brandon Aldridge chased down quarterback Brent Adams for a sack.
