The Central Purple Pounders opened the John Allen era in a way that, quite frankly, looked a little unfamiliar to the opening night crowd gathered outside Etter-Farmer Field. And it certainly looked a little unfamiliar to those boys in purple and gold Friday night.
It wasn't so much in the fact Central gutted out an impressive 29-13 victory over a good Polk County team, but rather the way in which the Pounders staked claimed to their season opener.
Stuck in a 7-7 gridlock heading into the final period in a game that looked like first one to score next wins, the Pounders watched in despair as Wildcats quarterback Al Akins broke off a 73-yard run only two plays after the Polk defense had stopped Central on downs inside the 5.
Central responded with senior linebacker Nikolay Timoshchuck stopping four straight Polk runs inside the Central 5, including a goal-line stop with the Wildcats just inches away from the score.
"When they got down there on our goal line, I'm sure everyone said, 'Well, here we go again. They're Central, and they're not going to win a game like this,'" Timoshchuck said afterward. "But we were ready for whatever they had tonight."
Indeed they were. Central responded with a 99-yard, 14-play drive to take a 13-7 lead and then watched James Easley scoop up a Wildcats fumble and return 15 yards for a TD two plays later to make it 21-7 after Timoshchuck's conversion run.
"That was big," Allen said. "I told our kids if we worked hard this summer and bought into what we were trying to do, we'd reap the rewards. Tonight was pretty special. We beat a pretty good football team."
To the Wildcats' credit, they responded to being stunned so quickly and Akins needed just three plays to produce his second TD of the night, a 21-yard scamper, but Central was able to run out all but the final 52 seconds with a 64-yard, nine-play drive all on the ground, LaDarrius Jackson getting his second score of the night on a 1-yard dive.
The Pounders were very efficient on the ground, gaining 307 yards with Robert Cobb impressing with 11 carries and 135 yards. Akins led the Polk offense with 99 yards rushing and another 83 yards passing. Timoshchuck was the Central defensive leader along with Sam Sledge, Tyler Little, Demonte Bibbs and Josh Tisdale.