McMINNVILLE — McMinnville came to its homecoming game armed with a planeload of bombs, and needed every one of them to get rid of pesky Centennial 41-27 in a 6A nonleague football contest Friday night.
It’s no big secret that when you prepare for the Grizzlies (4-1), you have to wear flak jackets. The Bears will shoot it short, long or anywhere in between if they can find a crack in a secondary.
Friday night, they went deep. Quarterback Sam DuPuis launched touchdown rockets of 70 and 74 yards to speedball wide receiver Colton Smith and tossed two more scores to Parker Spence, one covering 48 yards. He finished 13 of 23 for 338 yards.
Smith had seven catches for 207 yards and two touchdowns and Spence had three catches for 67 yards.
The Grizzlies raced to a 27-7 lead in the first half. It could have been a lot closer, but Centennial fumbled away juicy scoring chances at the McMinnville 9 twice in the first half.
The Eagles (3-2) almost made it all the way back in the second half. Junior quarterback Kyle Fitzgerald began driving the Bears crazy with triple option reads to both sides and sprung himself and speed backs Jimmie Barton and Nick Garcia open on the corners.
A 13-yard run by Cyrus Boatman with 6:55 left in the game got Centennial back within 34-27, but McMinnville went to senior tailback Noah Kepler for a 48-yard drive and clinched the win with his 17-yard run with 5:40 left.
The Bears could have run it up even more at the end when they got the ball inside the Eagle 1-yard line with a minute to go, but Mac coach Ryan McIrvin had DuPuis kneel out the game for the win.
Ultimately, the story of the McMinnville win was Centennial’s inability to stop the Bears’ deep passing game. Like this:
— The game was still fresh out of the oven when Centennial punted to the Grizzly 26. On the first play, DuPuis hauled off and launched one to Smith down the right sideline for a 13-0 lead.
— The Eagles were still in it in the first half with their first touchdown, a halfback pass from Boatman across the field to Kahleed McCallister with just 23 seconds left in the half. But a kickoff and one incomplete pass later, DuPuis shoulder-faked the Eagle secondary and arched one down the right sideline to Smith to score just a second short of halftime.
— Centennial was building some serious momentum in the third quarter when Boatman scored on a short run and the Bears set themselves back to their own 30 with a personal foul on the ensuing drive. But on second and 30, DuPuis saw a situation he liked on the right side again and hit Smith with another deep one.
McMinnville has a formula.
“If they’re pressing up tight on us and we don’t see any safeties over the top,” Smith said, “it’s an automatic audible. We have hand signals in situations like that.
“Sometimes the coach gives us a running play, but if they’re in single coverage and there are no safeties, we’re drooling at the mouth. We like to sling it.”
Said DuPuis, “We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. (Smith) is so fast, we know we can get a score.”
McIrvin was grateful for the big halftime lead against the dangerous Eagles.
“I thought we got off to a good start,” he said. “That’s good against a team like them. Offensively they’re really good.
“We haven’t been clicking lately, but tonight we ran the ball effectively. The line did a better job protecting the quarterback tonight. The defense in the first half was great; in the second half we missed a few assignments.
“But mostly I’m proud of how we played tonight.”
