Beyond the Boxscore: Defensive stand, Moore’s punts, Thompson’s catches play pivotal roles in Central’s state championship

NORMAL, Ill. — At times, they seem like just another play.

Other times, they define a championship.

Friday at Illinois State University’s Hancock Stadium, the Camp Point Central football team made a number of plays that would be easy to overlook on a stat sheet but proved to be pivotal moments in the 14-0 victory over Lena-Winslow in the Class 1A state championship game.

Here are three reasons Central captured the first state title in any sport in school history:

Hold the line

Lena-Winlsow forced Central to go three-and-out on the game’s opening possession, and the three-time defending state champion looked like it was ready to take control immediately. Lena-Winslow drove to the red zone and ultimately reached the 6-yard line.

However, on fourth and 4, Central’s Reese Wilkey and Drew Paben combined to stuff Lena-Winslow’s Lucas Fye for no gain and forced a turnover on downs.

It didn’t lead to a scoring drive for Central, but it didn’t allow Lena-Winslow to take the lead and dictate pace of play. That was monumental.

“We’d be in that situation before where we hadn’t moved it and they started picking up chunks of yards and you’re like, ‘Here we go again,’” Central coach Brad Dixon said. “We just kind of had to survive there for a little bit. We tried multiple defensive fronts. We knew we had to be multiple today because we weren’t going to be able to sit in our base defense against what we do.

“So we mixed things up. We got that stop and gave our guys confidence.”

Picture-perfect punts

Prior to Friday’s game, Central senior quarterback Nick Moore, who doubles as the team’s punter, had punted just eight times all season, although he was averaging 40 yards per punt. Lena-Winslow forced Moore to punt on Central’s game-opening possession, and he uncorked a solid 36-yard boot into the wind.

He was just getting warmed up.

Moore punted five times, averaging 30.2 yards with a long punt of 40 yards, but it was his ability to pin Lena-Winslow deep in its own end in the second half that proved critical.

On the second play of the fourth quarter, Moore hit a picture-perfect punt to the corner, knocking it out of bounds at the 3-yard line. His next punt was a 35-yarder that left Lena-Winslow taking possession at its own 4-yard line, which proved disastrous.

Forced to punt after picking up just one first down, Lena-Winslow’s Aiden Wild got off just a 10-yard punt, giving Central possession at the Lena-Winslow 26-yard line. Three plays later, Elijah Genenbacher scored on an 11-yard run for a two-possession lead.

“The good punts really helped,” Genenbacher said. “(Lena-Winslow) knew they had to punt instead of going for it on fourth down, because if we did get a stop, we’d be that much closer to the end zone. When we got them in third-and-long situations and fourth-and-long plays, they had to punt.”

Passing fancy

Central didn’t cross midfield on its first two possessions and had just two first downs by the midpoint of the second quarter, but one pass play opened up the offense.

Facing first and 10 from the 45-yard line, Moore connected with senior wide receiver Jack Thompson on a 34-yard pass play. Two plays later, Elijah Genenbacher rumbled 23 yards for a touchdown to give Central a 7-0 lead with 5:10 remaining in the first half.

“The first reception always gets the nerves out,” Thompson said. “After that, we’re connected.”

Moore and Thompson connected three times for 55 yards, and the ability to complete a couple passes made Lena-Winslow respect the passing game and not stack the box with 11 defenders in hopes of stopping the run.

“The playbook was open,” Thompson said. “It was wide after we established the passing game. Then you had the running game, and they had to worry about both. So the playbook was wide open.”