The Northeastern football team traveled to Centerville on Friday, Sept. 26, for a critical Tri-Eastern Conference game with a lot riding on the outcome.
A Northeastern win would put the defending TEC champions in a position to control their own destiny with two league games remaining and extend their TEC win streak to 14 games. A Centerville win would pull the Knights back to the pack and create a four-way tie between Centerville, Knightstown, Northeastern and Winchester at the top of the TEC standings.
The game, played before a huge, vocal crowd, was a thriller and lived up to its pregame hype. At the end of night, it was the Knights who were celebrating a 29-27 win.
The Knights took an early lead. Knight senior quarterback Marshall Phillips connected with Caden Retter on a 27-yard scoring strike and then kicked the PAT to give the Knights a 7-0 lead four minutes into the game.
The Bulldogs started their first possession on the 20-yard line. On the first play from scrimmage, Jeremiah Mull sprinted 49 yards to give Centerville great field position. Jace Hollendonner ran 13 yards on the next play, but then the offense bogged down. Phillips intercepted a pass on the 20-yard line to return possession to the Knights. The teams traded possession two more times before the first half ended with the Knights still leading 7-0.
After the two teams battled in the trenches for most of the period, the Bulldogs scored twice in the final minute of the second quarter to take a 14-7 halftime lead. At the 2:54 mark, Ethan Vecera took a direct snap from center and scored from two yards out. The PAT kick was wide, leaving the Knights with a 7-6 lead. With 1:42 to play, Davis Pentecost intercepted a Knight pass and the Bulldogs capitalized. With 45 seconds remaining, Jace Hollendonner hooked up with Shea Hollendonner on a 35-yard pass play to give the Bulldogs a first and goal at the 10-yard line. Mull ran it in from there and Vecera scored on a two-point conversion to give Centerville a 14-7 lead with a minute to play in the first half.
The teams traded possession for most of the third quarter before the Knights got an unexpected break. On the 40-yard line, with 3:35 remaining in the period, the Bulldogs went into punt formation, but the snap sailed over the punter’s head and the Knights took over in the red zone. Nine plays later, Phillips plunged into the end zone and added a PAT to tie the game at 14-14 heading to the final period.
The game intensified further in the fourth quarter.
Jace Hollendonner hit Kyle Dickenson for an 11-yard TD pass with 8:56 to play, but the ensuing PAT kick was blocked, leaving the Bulldogs with a 20-14 lead. Two minutes later, Phillips eluded three tacklers and scored in a 3-yard run to even the score at 20-20. Phillips then booted the PAT to send the Knights ahead 21-20.
With three minutes to play, Centerville scored on a pass play that was called back because of a penalty. In a huge play with 2:22 to go, Phillips threw a 56-yard touchdown pass to Trent Deloney to increase the Knights’ lead 27-20 and then scored on a two-point conversion. With a minute to play, Centerville scored on a pass play from Jace Hollendonner to Maddox Pritchett and Boston Beatty added the PAT, but the Knights covered the ensuing onside kick to run out the clock.
Knight head coach Wes Oler said he was happy to see his team put themselves in a position to control the TEC race.
“Centerville’s game plan was to take away our deep passing game and negate our speed,” Oler said. “They put four guys in the box, and we did not run the ball well in the first half. In the second half, we made some changes to impose our will on them, and we were able to run to help open up our passing game. Marshall (Phillips) also made some huge plays, including completing pass after pass, and our defense was great. Centerville is good and they are well coached. It was a battle.”
Centerville head coach Ryan Cole hopes the teams will play again.
“I know what the scoreboard says,” Cole said, “but we feel like we outplayed them. We thought we had a good game plan and executed it well for the most part. We had a couple of special team errors that cost us and a couple of touchdowns called back. This is a hard loss. This is a rivalry. We expected ebbs and flows. I was proud of how our kids just kept fighting. We will live with this but there is a good chance that we could see them again in the sectional. We would love that opportunity.”
It was the first time since the 2014 season that the Knights won at Centerville. Complete stats were not available at press time for either team.
Northeastern (6-0, 6-0 TEC) 7 0 7 15 29
Centerville (4-2, 4-2 TEC) 0 14 0 13 27
A version of this article will appear in the October 1 2025 print edition of the Western Wayne News.