Photo - Kassity Boor
While he became the school’s all-time single-season touchdown passing leader on his third touchdown pass of the night, it was the fourth one that turned out to be the difference for freshman quarterback Miles Reding and the Todd County Central Rebels. Reding found B.J. Farlow for a 50-yard touchdown strike with 1:30 left in the game for the go-ahead score.
The Todd Central defense then came up with a big stop on its own 16-yard line on the final play of the game shutting down a last-gasp Dragon drive as the Rebels picked up an exciting 29-26 win over Warren Central Friday night in Elkton.
Reding’s go-ahead score came after the Dragons took a late lead on a one-yard run from Dominique Anthony with 3:25 left in the game.
The final 12 minutes of the contest saw big plays and big momentum swings on both sidelines as neither team could get the other one put away.
Early in the night it looked as if the Dragons might be ready to breathe fire and leave the Rebels in their wake. Dominique Anthony scored his first touchdown of the night on a one-yard quarterback sneak with 6:00 left in the first to put Warren Central up 8-0.
After stopping the Rebels on the next possession, the Dragons got a big momentum boost as Zarionte Howard took a punt and sprinted off to the left sideline. With a convoy of blockers escorting him down the field, Howard found the end zone 85 yards later to extend the Warren Central lead to 14-0 with 3:56 left in the first.
The Rebels broke through on the first play of the second quarter. Miles Reding found Elisha Bryant running wide open down the seam for a 22-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 14-7 with 11:53 left in the opening half.
Warren Central got that score back just over five minutes later when KeioVon Wells found the end zone on an eight-yard run to push the lead back out to 20-7.
With the offense finding its stride, the Rebels came back down the field. Miles Reding threw his second touchdown pass of the night, this one a 22-yard strike to B.J. Farlow, cutting the lead right back to 20-14 with 3:30 left in the half, and that would be the score as the two teams ventured off to the break.
The third quarter saw both teams have long drives in terms of time of possession, but neither was able to add any points to their total going into the final quarter. But the pace of play was about to pick up.
On 4th and long from the Warren Central 26-yard line, Miles Reding bought himself some time and then lofted the ball to the back right corner of the end zone. Just as it looked as if B.J. Farlow was well covered, Farlow went up and got the ball over the defender and came down with one of the great catches of the season for the Rebels to put Todd Central up 21-20 with 9:42 left in the game, setting the stage for the wild finish.
The Rebel finished the night with 176 yards rushing and 137 yards passing for 313 total. Warren Central had 219 yards on the ground and 133 through the air for 352 total yards.
Miles Reding had 87 yards on 15 carries for Todd Central. Quinton Grace ran the ball 21 times for 68 yards.
Reding was 8-18-0 through the air for 137 yards and four touchdowns including the game-winner. Farlow caught three passes for 98 yards.
Penalties were a killer for the Dragons as they were flagged 11 times for 102 yards. The Rebels had seven flags for only 31 yards.
Todd County Central ends the regular season at 5-5 and will now travel to Marion next week to take on Crittenden County in the opening round of the Class 2A playoffs.
