Central built an 18-point lead early in the second half of Friday night’s Region 3-4A game at Hixson, but two quick scores by the host Wildcats appeared to have the Purple Pounders on the ropes.
That is, until Ronye’ Watson stepped up.
The sophomore quarterback, who already had two touchdowns rushing and another passing, returned the ensuing kickoff 94 yards for a score, and the Pounders were able to move on to win 34-16 against pesky Hixson.
Watson passed for 160 yards and netted over 100 yards in returns — including the touchdown, when he saw a gap along the Hixson sideline, hit it and was gone on the most important play of the game.
“That broke their backs,” Central coach Curt Jones said.
Said Watson: “My coaches tell me that you can’t wait on it. You have to find an open hole and just go, and that’s what I did.”
It wasn’t the prettiest of starts for the Pounders (3-1, 2-0), who in their first three possessions turned the ball over twice on downs and lost a fumble. But on their fourth offensive series, Marquise High broke free for a 45-yard run before Watson finished the drive from 22 out.
“Obviously we have to work on cleaning some things up,” Jones said. “We killed ourselves in the first half with penalties, but we were able to overcome it in the end.
“I turned on the film of Hixson this week, and I saw our team from about a year and a half, two years ago. They are developing a great football team over there; Coach (Josh) Owensby and those guys are doing a great job. I’m proud of what they’re doing, but every time that we let them hang around, we stepped it back up.”
High rushed for 81 yards and Donovan Smith had 70 receiving yards for the Pounders.
Michael Kendricks rushed for 136 yards for the Wildcats (2-2, 1-1), who turned the ball over three times.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.