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ROARING SPRING -- A 30-minute power outage at the end of halftime Friday night was one the highlights of the Central vs. Philipsburg-Osceola game in high school football action.
The other highlights belonged to Dragon quarterbacks Noah Muthler and Braden Kitt, and their exploits will be just as memorable down the road when the game is recalled by those in attendance.
Muthler ran for three touchdowns, passed for one, and caught one of two touchdown passes from Kitt in a 41-21 victory that improved the team to 2-4, while dropping the Mounties to 0-6.
"We threw the ball better tonight, we threw the deep ball well," said Central coach Dave Baker, whose two signal callers hit on 16-of-25 passes for 238 yards. "(Kitt) can throw and he throws the deep ball well. Muthler was hurt (recently) and didn't play in a game and Kitt started that game and threw like four touchdown passes."
The game opened with Muthler and P-O quarterback Bubba Slogosky exchanging interceptions on the first two plays of the game. The Mounties' pick by Chase Chapman gave P-O the ball at the Central 35. However, coach Brian McGonigal's team turned it right back over when Central's Zach Parks picked off a pass.
"We missed some key opportunities, " said the P-O first-year coach. "The first interception, we had an RPO (read-pass-option) and we made the correct read on it. We had a guy wide open and he walks into the end zone if we hit it, but the pass was high. We watched it on film at halftime and it was there."
Central took a 7-0 lead at the end of the first quarter, thanks to a 26-yard touchdown run by Muthler. He added another scoring run, this from 5 yards out, at the outset of the second quarter for a 13-0 lead. Muthler tacked on a 26-yard touchdown pass to Thad Albright, and then caught a 15-yard touchdown pass right before halftime from Kitt for a 27-0 lead.
The Mounties, who showed the ability to throw the ball throughout the game, could not muster anything on the ground.They finished with negative 13 yards on the ground in the first half, and 7 yards total on 20 carries at the end of the game.
"We had a lot of missed blocks up front, and we knew that they were going to switch upfront, but we were not getting any push upfront and we were getting frustrated," McGonigal said.
Baker, whose defense had 10 tackles for loss, was somewhat surprised when told of that statistic after the game.
"I thought we could stop their run but I didn't think we would do that well," he said. "But they sort of had to give up running the ball early, but their passing game is pretty good. Their kids can throw."
Muthler put Central up 34-0 when the second half finally got under way. He took it in from 6 yards out at the 8:21 mark. P-O finally got on the board when Slogosky hit Aaron Depto with a 56-yard touchdown pass with under four minutes to go in the quarter.
"We did fight back in the second half, " McGonigal said. "We put a lot of young kids in the second half and they stepped up."
Central got its final score when Kitt hit Zach Parks with a 36-yard touchdown pass at the 2:37 mark for a 41-7 lead. Kitt finished hitting on 5-of-7 passes for 92 yards and two scores. Muthler was 11-of-18 for 146 yards.
P-O scored twice in the final frame. Slogosky hit T.J. Thompson with a 28-yard touchdown pass, while backup quarterback Ryan Whitehead found Depto for a 3-yard scoring pass to finish off the fourth quarter.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Philipsburg-Osceola 0 0 7 14 -- 21
Central 7 20 14 0 -- 41
First Quarter
C--Muthler 26 run (Keith kick),1:40
Second Quarter
C--Muthler 5 run (run failed),8:59
C--Albright 26 pass from Muthler (Keith kick) 5:19
C--Muthler 15 pass from Kitt(Keith kick),:36
Third Quarter
C--Muthler 6 run (Keith kick), 8:21
PO--Depto 56 pass from Slogosky (Parks kick), 3:50
C--Parks 36 pass from Kitt (Keith kick), 2:37
Fourth Quarter
PO--Thompson 28 pass from Slogosky (Parks kick), 10:51
PO--Depto 3 pass from Whitehead (Parks kick), 6:32
TEAM STATISTICS PO C
First downs 16 22
Total yards 298 423
Rushes-yards 20-7 27-185
Yards passing 291 238
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 17-38-3 16-25-1
Punts-avg. 4-30.2 2-38.5
Fumbles-lost 0-0 4-2
Penalties-yards 7-77 3-45
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING--Philipsburg-Osceola, McDonald 8-6,Slogosky 4-(-6), Martin 1-(-7),Stamm 3-18, Whitehead 4-(-4). Central, Muthler 10-65, Kurtz 2-9, Imler 11-71, Marko 7-20, Walters 1-0, Parks1-5,Quarello 4-20, Kitt 1-(-5).
PASSING--Philipsburg-Osceola, Slogosky 13-28-3-219, Whitehead 4-10-0-72. Central, Muthler11-18-1-146, Kitt 5-7-0-92.
RECEIVING--Philipsburg-Osceola, Chapman 3-13, Depto 4-75, Thompson 4-96,McDonald 2-19, Whitehead 2-32, Holencik 1-12, Stamm 1-44. Central, Albright 2-35, Walters 2-55, Parks 7-100, Imler 1-2, Kurtz 1-2, Muthler 3-44.