TAKEN DOWN FOR A TACKLE: {span}TCC’s Devin Ross tackles a Veterans wide receiver.{/span}

PERRY – Thomas County Central’s Region 1-6A opener went about as well as head coach Justin Rogers could have hoped for.

The Yellow Jackets started strong with a 28-point first quarter, led 49-0 at halftime and cruised to a 52-0 rout of the Veterans Warhawks. Central scored two non-offensive touchdowns and only needed 32 offensive plays en route to capturing its 16th straight regular season victory.

“That’s a better football team than what the score said,” Rogers said. “I thought we had a good first quarter. The offense got the ball, drove down and scored. The defense held them to a missed field goal and it just kind of took over. I thought we had momentum. They had a lot of turnovers, but they were forced turnovers. I thought we played really aggressive, and we were pushing the envelope on them.

“We’re starting to build a program when you can have that kind of momentum go, sometimes that logo on the side of your helmet just does the rest. They’ve already got that doubt, because you’re building a nice program. I think you saw some of that.”

Central operated with a running clock in the second half and mostly reserves in the fourth quarter. The Yellow Jackets capitalized on Warhawks mistakes on offense and special teams. Central’s defense picked off four passes, including one returned for a touchdown by Devin Ross, and recovered a fumble, while the special teams returned a fumble 19 yards for a touchdown and blocked a punt, setting up another score.

Central tallied seven touchdowns but only needed one pass completion and 172 yards of offense. Trey Brenton rushed for 81 yards and two touchdowns. Ahmad Ponder added 47 yards and one touchdown on the ground. Quarterback Jaylen Johnson completed one pass, a 32-yard scoring strike to Kendarius Reddick.

The Yellow Jackets capitalized on great field position in the first half.

“I think our worst field position in the first half was the minus-40, which is really good field position. Everything else was positive territory, and I think two of them were inside the red zone. We had short fields the entire time,” Rogers said.