While the Winona Christian offense has carried the team most of the season, it was the defense’s time to shine on Friday night.
The Stars forced seven turnovers and took a 45-26 win over visiting Centreville in the second round of the Class 3A playoffs on Friday night.
With the win, Winona Christian improves to 9-2 on the season. The Stars will now host Indianola on Friday night in the 3A semifinals with a trip to the title game on the line.
Veteran WCS coach Junior Graham was pleased with the way his team played the tough, physical Centreville team.
“It may have been one of our most complete games,” Graham said. “And we had some big plays called back or we would have put up well over 450 yards. I thought our defense was really opportunistic. They had 300 yards but 97 of that was on the last drive against our subs. It was a big win for our kids and our school. It’s new territory for our kids now.”
The Stars put the first points on the board when John White hit Choyce Diffey on a 33-yard touchdown pass. The PAT failed and Winona led 6-0.
Centreville answered back with an 18-yard pass play but failed on the two-point conversion to leave the score tied at 6-6.
The Stars then took control of the game as they posted three straight scores. The first was a 3-yard run by Hayden Self and a two-point run by White to lead 14-6 at the end of the first. The second was a 30-yard run by John White and the second was a 69-yard pass from White to Reed Roberts as the Stars led 26-6. Centreville scored on a 46-yard pass as they trailed 26-12 at the half.
“I thought we did a good job running the football,” Graham said. “We ran Hayden Self, Dalton Wiggins and Reed Roberts and had success with them. We ran John White for the first time and he scored twice. Being able to run him will make us a little more dynamic moving forward by having him as a threat to run the football.”
The Stars received the ball to start the second half and Diffey returned it 75 yards for a touchdown. The Stars hit the PAT and led 33-12.
Centreville answered with a 24-yard touchdown pass to cut the lead to 33-18 but that was as close as the Tigers got.
Winona answered with two more scored as Dalton Wiggins scored on a 20-yard run and Diffey scored on a 17-yard run as the Stars led 44-18. Centreville scored on a 2-yard run to cap off a 97-yard drive for the final margin.
“Choyce continues to play well,” Graham said. “He has had big games all year. He had two interceptions, a rushing TD, a receiving TD and a kickoff return for a touchdown. He had a really well-rounded game on both sides of the football.”
The Stars had 216 yards passing on 13-of-16 attempts and rushed for 166 yards on 34 carries for 379 yards of total offense. Wiggins led the rushing attack with 70 yards on eight carries while Roberts had 76 yards receiving on two catches.
On defense, Self led the way with 11 tackles while Ben Pinkard had nine stops. Diffey had two interceptions while Wiggins and Bradley Pinkard also had picks. Self, Jake Ware and Lane Beckwith also had fumble recoveries for the Stars who held Centreville to 156 yards rushing and 162 passing.
“We were around the ball all night,” Graham said. “We only had one turnover so we were plus six there. We were able to get them out of that double wing and they went to doubles. I thought we did a good job on defense and were able to take first down away from them and that’s so big against them.”
