The Ankeny Centennial football team couldn’t afford to have an 0-2 start to the season.
JJ Morgan and Kiefer Reed made sure that the Jaguars didn’t.
Morgan rushed for 207 yards and four touchdowns in the first half alone, and Reed added a pick-6 as well as a fumble recovery as Centennial rolled to a 35-10 victory over visiting Linn-Mar (Marion) on Friday at Ankeny Stadium.
“This game was very big for us!” said Morgan. “We were looking to start off strong Week 1 with a good win, but fell off a little bit (in a loss at Southeast Polk). But mistakes happen, and we have to move on and get better. So today we showed what the Centennial offense could really do!”
The Jaguars took an early 7-0 lead when Reed picked off a third-down pass from Linn-Mar quarterback Hunter Wildman and returned it 44 yards for a touchdown. The score came just 94 seconds into the game.
“That’s been a strong point for us, and we kind of knew that,” Centennial co-head coach Ryan Pezzetti said of the Jaguars’ defense. “We have quite a few kids back that had some varsity experience over the last two years. The new faces are blending right in, and anytime you can play solid defense early in the year when the offenses are trying to get the ball rolling, that’s a plus too.”
Linn-Mar (0-2) drove into Centennial territory on its next possession before turning the ball over on downs at the Jaguars’ 23-yard line. Then, on the next play, Morgan dashed 77 yards up the middle to make it 14-0 with 4:15 left in the first quarter.
After Reed recovered a fumble by Wildman on the Lions’ next play from scrimmage, Morgan needed just two carries to find the end zone again. He ran 5 yards to the Linn-Mar 10, then scored on a run over the right side for his second touchdown in a span of 56 seconds.
“We knew going into the game that I was going to get a lot of carries,” Morgan said. “So we just went in and executed what we practice. Success comes with execution!”
After Centennial forced a punt, Morgan raced 48 yards on the final play of the first quarter for another score, extending the margin to 28-0. The Jaguars outgained Linn-Mar by a 149-54 margin in the opening period.
On Centennial’s next possession, Morgan capped off his big night with perhaps his best run of the game. On fourth-and-2 from the Jaguars’ 44, he took a handoff around the left side, avoided a tackle in the backfield, raced up the sideline and then cut back at the Lions’ 27 before stiff-arming a defender at about the 6 to reach the end zone.
The 56-yard scamper gave the Jaguars a 35-0 advantage with 7:59 left in the half.
“The kids came out and bounced back. They really had a great week of practice, and that was reflected in the first half,” Pezzetti said. “Last week against Southeast Polk we thought we ran the ball well at times, but just not consistently. When we saw the little things that we could do a better job at and correct, we focused on that. There’s no question that we have three backs that complement each other, and tonight was JJ’s night.”
Centennial racked up 214 total yards on just 13 offensive plays in the first half. The Jaguars’ attack then stalled in the second half, while Linn-Mar kicked a 25-yard field goal late in the third quarter before scoring its lone touchdown with 4:06 left in the game.
“You want to finish the game, and we didn’t really finish it the way we wanted to,” Pezzetti said. “Linn-Mar did not quit, and they capitalized on some of our mistakes. But it gives us something to work on this week.”
The Jaguars will face Des Moines Lincoln in a matchup of 1-1 teams on Thursday. Kickoff at Mediacom Stadium in Des Moines will be at 7:30 p.m.
The Railsplitters are coming off a 24-7 loss to Des Moines North on Friday.
