“This is great,” said senior defensive end Javon Hammonds, who had 1.5 sacks and 2.5 tackles for loss. “Beating the rival team, that’s always amazing. That just made me so proud. We were just all connected. Nobody did their own thing. We still get another game right here back home, which is going to be very important to us.”
The Ohio High School Athletic Association will announce the official playoff pairings Sunday. Wayne (7-3, 5-2 Greater Western Ohio Conference) entered as the No. 8 team in Division I, Region 2 and will be the No. 5 or No. 6 seed and play either No. 11 Fairmont or No. 12 Springfield. Centerville (8-2, 6-1) came in already as the GWOC champion and at No. 4, which is where they are likely to stay and face No. 13 Olentangy Orange.
“It’s a credit to our coaches and our players working extremely hard this week and trying to get back on that right side of that column,” Wayne coach Roosevelt Mukes said. “I just want to give honor to God and our coaches and our players for just believing and doing what they’re capable of doing.”
The Elks fell behind 19-0 and cut the Wayne lead to 19-9 at halftime and 26-16 late in the third quarter. But Wayne controlled the ball much of the fourth quarter behind the running of sophomore Isaiah Thompson who rushed for 95 of his 119 yards in the second half.
“They had a really good game plan, they did a really good job of prepping and they showed up and executed it,” Elks coach Brent Ullery said. “Our guys were ready. Wayne played a great game.”
The Warriors led 12-0 after the first quarter on Tyrell Lewis touchdown passes of 61 yards to Jackson Solomon and 32 yards on a screen to Teaunn Hunter.
“That gave us all the momentum that we needed,” Lewis said. “We knew we had to come out here and swing first.”
Thompson scored second-half touchdowns of 5 and 14 yards to help the Warriors score the most points Centerville has allowed this season. The previous high was 22, and no team had scored more than two touchdowns against the Elks.
Wayne’s defense had its best night of the season. Jussiah Williams-West returned an interception 29 yards for a touchdown for a 19-0 lead to start the second quarter, and Hammonds and Juan Cranford led a front seven that made the Elks struggle for first downs.
“They did their thing tonight — I’m so proud of them,” Lewis said. “They told me they weren’t going to let me down. They for sure didn’t.”
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