Celina quarterback Zane LaCrue is tackled by a Frisco Panther Creek defender in the first quarter of a District 4-5A Division II game in Frisco.
The hunt for the District 4-5A Division II title got a little bit clearer after Friday night.
Celina went into David Kuykendall Stadium and picked up a 48-14 win over Frisco Panther Creek to stay unbeaten on the season.
After Week 5, Anna is leading the hunt with a 3-0 mark, followed by Celina and Frisco, both 2-0.
“It was great because we always knew Panther Creek's a really good team and we always had a little kind of a rivalry going,” said first-year Celina coach Marc Brindel. “So it was good to go out there and beat them.”
Celina dominated in all three facets of the game.
Jax Holt booted a pair of field goals, including a 53-yarder in the fourth quarter.
The offense helped the Bobcats (4-0) race out to a 24-0 lead after the opening drive of the third quarter.
Freshman quarterback Zane LaCrue threw three touchdown passes to sophomore Lamar Taylor. LaCrue had touchdown passes of 42, 20 and 91 yards to Taylor.
“Zane's really good, and he's young, so he's been learning every game,” senior running back Evan Koehne said of the ninth-grader starting QB1. “And it seems like every single game, and even in practice, you can just tell that he's getting better every single day.”
Koehne himself had a pair of touchdowns. He had a 7-yard score in the second quarter where he was hit at the 5-yard line and just kept churning his legs and got into the end zone. On the second play of the third quarter, he took a handoff from LaCrue and ran 60 yards to paydirt.
Panther Creek (3-2, 1-2) had its lowest output on offense this year. Before this game, the Panthers had scored 40, 27, 56 and 42.
The running game was held in check by Celina’s swarming defense to the tune of 58 yards and quarterback Tristin Schramm threw for 167 yards. It was only the second game this year he was held without a touchdown pass — the other was a loss to Anna.
The defense also had a touchdown. Colton Crumpley picked off a pass and ran it back 25 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. That was a sequence where Celina scored two touchdowns in 13 seconds.
Running back Shawn White scored twice for Panther Creek in the third quarter. He had touchdown runs of 4 and 16 yards.
Panther Creek will play Prosper Richland, while Celina hosts 4-1 Frisco Emerson next Friday.
Doug Brown (VYPE)
Carmen Agnew (VYPE)
