Central Indians suffer season ending loss to North KC in district tournament quarterfinals
Oct. 29—The No. 5 Central Indians faced off against the No. 4 North Kansas City Hornets in the Class 5 District 8 quarterfinals but couldn't come away with the win, falling 34-28 in overtime.
The Indians and Hornets went blow for blow for the majority of the game.
Central got the party started early in the first quarter when quarterback Stone Wetlaufer hit wide receiver Anthony Vassar for a big 64-yard touchdown.
The Hornets answered back to tie it at seven, but Wetlaufer went back to work, hitting Vassar again on a fade to the endzone for his second touchdown of the first quarter.
The Indians would get a big stop on fourth down to get the ball back, a drive that was capped off by a Gabe Fields one yard touchdown rush to put the Indians up 21-7 in the second quarter.
North Kansas City marched all the way down the field and tried to hit a deep shot in the endzone before half, but that ball would be picked off by junior Makavion Roddie to keep a two score lead for the Indians at the break.
But it would be a tale of two halves for the Central offense. The Hornets would score out of half to cut into Central's lead, but Gabe Fields took the ensuing kickoff 76 yards to the house for his second touchdown of the night.
The Indians' offense was kept out of the endzone outside of that in the second half and North Kansas City would force overtime after tying the game at 28, ultimately overpowering the Indian's defense.
"I'm really proud of (Stone) and our entire team, this group of seniors put us in the right direction and I'll always be indebted to those guys, for sure," head coach Regi Trotter said after the loss. "The senior class, they were on an "0 for" team as freshmen. We didn't win a ballgame, and that was really hard to go through. But they stayed together, they never turned on each other, they never tried to go and find greener pastures or anything like that. They just put the work in and really got better. But I really think this senior group was special, and I think I was the perfect group to go through it with."
Central finishes the season 5-5 but took big strides this year after only having one win each of the last two seasons and will have a lot to build on going into next year.
North Kansas City advances to take on No. 1 Fort Osage in the semifinal round next week.
Joe Patrick can be reached at joe.patrick@newspressnow.com.
