THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Central High School Athletics

Cade Balleweg is a combination of fast and quick, and he's got a nice pair of hands. With the clock winding down to halftime, Balleweg made a quick juke and cut to the inside and zeroed in on quarterback Max Marsh's throw. The throw was long, but Balleweg reached up with his left hand and speared the toss, and then showed his speed as he raced 61 yards to the end zone. It was the senior's second touchdown catch of the first half Saturday night as the Central Warriors cruised to a 42-3 win over Coronado at Stocker Stadium. "I really have no idea what happened," Balleweg said about the catch. "He threw the ball and I knew I had to hustle to get under it. I guess it's the sticky gloves." He smiled — there were lots of smiles for the Warriors in a game that had a running clock early in the third quarter. Coach Shawn Marsh gathered his team after the game and told them "You played a great, full game." Balleweg said the offense really clicked. "Every week we seem to miss something on offense and we finally put it all together," he said. Max Marsh finished 11 for 14 for 188 yards three TDs, and Anthony Zubiate added 107 yards on only 12 carries for the Warriors. The long Balleweg TD made the score 35-0 and came right after an impressive 92-yard drive that actually went 96 yards after a four-yard loss on first down. Marsh had two third-down completions on the drive, the first to Shaun Stepisnik for 11 yards and the second to Elijah Romero for 10 yards. That set up a 22-yard TD run by Zubiate. The game started out poorly for both teams. Coronado fumbled away the opening kickoff but the Warriors went four-and-out from the 18. The Cougars (2-3) moved the ball to the 48, but that's when Central's Tristan Rascon wrecked the drive with three straight sacks for a total of 15 yards in losses. Central (3-2) got its offense on track on its second drive. A 24-yard pass to Balleweg and a 3-yard run by Zubiate on fourth-and-2 moved the ball to the 20. That's when Balleweg used both hands to snare a low throw from Marsh just before it hit the turf. Balleweg again hit the jets after the catch and scooted in from 24 yards out to make the score 7-0. Coronado again fumbled away the kickoff and Central went back to work on offense. It took only three plays to score and Kole Taylor needed all of his 6-foot-6 frame's reach to grab Marsh's throw into tight coverage from 11 yards out for a 14-0 lead. If it weren't for Balleweg's one-handed grab and go, the catch of the game might have gone to Joe Carol, which set up the Warriors' third TD. Facing a third-and-15 from the 41, Marsh lofted a throw deep to the sideline that Carol pulled in right before he fell out of bounds for a 33-yard gain. Marsh took it the final seven yards for the score and a 21-0 lead. The Cougars finally put together a drive and moved the ball with running backs Ladarius Mays and Joel Senrick finding room between the tackles. A good play by Reid Spencer in pass defense and three more stops by the Warriors and the Cougars came up empty at the 8-yard line. Besides a couple of long runs, Central's defense was a swarming, gang-tackling unit. "We've just been working hard at practice, down after down after down, repetition, repetition, repetition, it's just ingrained in our brains on what we need to do every play," senior lineman Corben Miller said. "We just have to stay disciplined, that's what we did tonight to get this victory." Central was quick to add the Cougars' kickoff woes when Romero returned the second half kick 97 yards for a touchdown to start the running clock at 42-0. Romero broke to his left, made a stutter-step to get to the sideline and went untouched the rest of the way. Marsh said it was nice to see the team play well in all three phases of the game and he's looking forward to now moving into conference play. "When we payed Palisade we were able to finally have a better special teams game and tonight we were able to put all three phases of the game together," he said. "I believe we have a great defense, and I believe our offense is right on the verge of scoring 40 every time we play, so I'm very optimistic."

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Central High School Athletics

GOOD-HANDS GUY BALLEWEG'S CIRCUS CATCH, DEFENSE LEADS CENTRAL TO ROUT

DALE SHRULL

The Daily Sentinel | 9/29/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: Christopher Tomlinson