Central turned 1-3 start into 5A semifinals game vs. Catholic

A year after making it to the Class 4A championship, Central is playing in the 5A semifinals. If you only tune in for the playoffs, it looks like a team that picked up where it left off with another strong season.

The Bobcats didn't take the direct route, however. They have seven players who played in that championship game. Coach Bryson Rosser might have preferred the easier path, but he said it makes for a better story this way: His team started 1-3 and still found a way to the state semifinals, where it will host Catholic on Friday.

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Central started the season with high turnover from last year's team, then it got hit with injury after injury. Two quarterbacks went down; a running back got hurt; two offensive linemen got concussions. They couldn't catch a break.

It looked like a down year, bad luck that could turn into a lost season. But they changed the story.

"We had a stretch of home games; it wasn't a lot but it was a couple," Rosser said. "Three out of the first four were on the road and then we had three out of four at home. We did really well in that and we said, 'You know, we may have a chance at playoffs in the end.' "

Figuring out quarterback was a challenge. Central started Luke Ferguson, a freshman with one game of junior varsity experience. Rosser also shifted Braden Gaston from wide receiver to play a Wildcat-type quarterback. Now the Bobcats have original backup Eli Sharp back

The Bobcats turned to their run game. Central ran the ball five times as often as it threw it so far this season. Fifteen players have rushed at least once. Treysean Moore and Devone Moss, both juniors in their first year of varsity, emerged as the top running backs.

"They've been our everything," Rosser said. "You have two young men that haven't had any varsity experience up until this season, and they just decided to take matters into their own hands behind a veteran offensive line and really show up."

Central doesn't have a high-powered offense; the Bobcats average 217 total yards and 16 points a game. But the defense has allowed an average of only 15 points per game and has three shutouts.

The defense has been untouched by injuries, relative to what the offense has gone through, but it lost nine starters from last season. That unit has been a boost to the Bobcats. It's been a big part of Central's past four games, all win-or-go-home games.

These past four games – the final regular-season matchup and the first three rounds of the playoffs – have been more like what Central wanted to be playing. Once the Bobcats saw themselves within a game of what had seemed an unlikely trip to the playoffs, they've stepped up to another level.