Gregg and Hoenstine Lead Central to Big Win Over Richland @CentralDragonfb @rhsfootball

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Phil Myers | October 2, 2021

Parker Gregg (left) and Jeff Hoenstine (right).

The Central Scarlet Dragons were breathing fire all night as they bested the Richland Rams 40-13 before a packed house in Richland Friday night.  It was the Jeff Hoenstine and Parker Gregg show pretty much all night long.  Gregg scored five touchdowns and Hoenstine threw for 275 yards and 3 scores to up his state leading total to 26.  Coach Brandon Bailey said this of Hoenstine, “He’s one of the best quarterbacks I’ve ever coached against.”

Richland stayed with Central early on tying the game at 7 when Kellen Stahl connected with Grayden Lewis on an 81-yard scoring strike, but the potent Dragon offense had too much fire power.  The Dragons seemed to be able to pull out and execute the right play every time they needed one.  Seven of nine times Central converted a third down situation into a first down or a touchdown.  And many of those were third and longs.  They even converted a fourth down into a score.

Gregg scored all three of Central’s first half touchdowns, two receiving and one rushing.  That gave the Dragons a 21-7 half time lead.  Richland’s high-powered offense could not get on track in the first two quarters thanks to Centrals tough defense and to a couple dropped passes in key situations by Ram receivers.  “I thought it was a tough game,” said Dragon head coach Dave Baker, “we got the jump on them and we were able to continue to play a solid football throughout. Richland is a quality opponent.”

Central kept up the pressure in the second half scoring three more times, while Richland could only muster one more score.  Eli Lingenfelter snared a Hoenstine pass for a TD and Gregg ran the ball in for the other two touchdowns.  For the game Central gained 443 yards of offense to Richland’s 375.  And Central dominated the first half running nearly twice as many plays and owning the time of possession of close to 18 minutes, while Richland had the ball for barely over 6 minutes.

Griffin Larue caught a 19-yard pass from Stahl for the Rams’ second half score to pull Richland within two scores in the third quarter, but they would get no closer.  “We had to play perfect football to beat a team like that, and we didn’t play perfect football,” stated Bailey, “we played very good for the most part, but not perfect.”  Bailey went on to say that Central was ‘as good as I’ve seen around here for a while.’

Gregg rushed for 87 yards on 19 carries and he also caught 5 passes for 141 yards for the winning cause and when asked about his five-touchdown performance stated, ‘next week it might be someone else.  I’m just glad we got the win.’  Coming into the game Hoenstine had not rushed much yardage at all this year.  He broke his leg last year and appears to be fine as he looked very elusive at times when Richland pressured him.  He was able to scramble out of some tough situations and said he was comfortable doing whatever he could for the team.

For the Rams, Stahl completed 16 of 32 passes for 249 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.  Grayden Lewis caught 9 passes for 148 yards and a score.

Central hosts Bedford next week in a battle of undefeated teams.  Bedford and Central are the #5 and #6 AAA teams respectively in the state.  Richland now 4-2 travels to Penn Cambria to tackle the Panthers who are 5-1.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Central 7 14 12 7– 40

Richland 7 0 6 0– 13

First Quarter

C–Gregg 1 run (Smith kick), 9:10.

R–Lewis 81 pass from Stahl (Ritko kick), 3:54.

Second Quarter

C–Gregg 21 pass from Hoenstine (Smith kick), 8:51.

C–Gregg 34 pass from Hoenstine (Smith kick), 2:51.

Third Quarter

C–Lingenfelter 28 pass from Hoenstine (kick failed), 6:03.

R–Larue 19 pass from Stahl (kick failed), 5:11.

C–Gregg 3 run (kick failed), 1:51.

Fourth Quarter

C–Gregg 6 run (Black kick), 2:43.

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