Yes, there is an entire football game to talk about. Yes, we will go over it all. But we have to start with the very end, because we might have just seen the play of the year in Louisiana High School Football.
Up 13-10 with 6 minutes left, Neville got the ball back after Central was forced to punt. They drove all the way down to the 7 yard line, reaching 4th and goal with 3 minutes remaining. Given how inert Central’s offense was in the 2nd half, a field goal would likely put the game out of reach as an offensive touchdown seemed impossible for Central to score at this point.
Miraculously, they found a touchdown through other means.
In the near-freezing cold, the holder bobbled the snap and the kick got blocked by star DL KD Mays. It ricocheted behind the line of scrimmage and got picked up by Marvin Joseph, who returned the kick all the way back for a touchdown that gave Central the lead and ultimately led them to the school’s first state championship appearance since 1966.
As great as that play was, in order to appreciate it fully, we must examine how we got there, because it was quite a thrilling ride. Neville looked to exert their dominance early in a matchup that they would be historically expected to dominate going in, as start running back Jaylon Nichols scored on the very first play from scrimmage of the entire game. After the opening kick off was booted into the endzone for a touchback, Nichols broke off a 75 yard touchdown run to give Neville the 7-0 lead.
After Neville came in with a Mike Tyson-esque right hook to open the game and knock Central down, the Wildcats got off the mat and immediately answered. That was the theme of the game: Neville would keep pressing, trying to knock Central out of the game for good, and Central would just never go away.
On their opening drive, Central drove down and scored to tie things up, capping the drive off with a rushing touchdown scored by…Marvin Joseph. Yes, that same Marvin Joseph that scored the game winner. His primary position is DB, and yet he scored both of Central’s touchdowns. That is a special performance for one of the biggest playmakers on this elite Central defense.
In speaking of that Central defense, elite is the correct word to use. The defensive front in particular played at a psychopathic level tonight, a performance consistent with their body of work all season. Jaylon Nichols is awesome, and he got his throughout the game, but they were able to shut him down in spite of his abilities in a way that seemed impossible. Neville’s QB, Parker Robinson, was running for his life the entire day from an inevitable pass rush led by the Mays brothers. Anytime Neville seemed primed with a scoring opportunity, Central would always find a way out of the situation, be it with a short yardage stop, or with a spectacular turnover in the case of Steven Ranel. Central combined this bend-but-don’t break defense with a bit more offensive production to kick a field goal and take a 10-7 lead into halftime.
It’s important to clarify how those scoring opportunities would come up, and that was mostly through the avenue of special teams. Because this game was played in very cold weather for Louisiana standards (it was about 40 degrees on the field at kickoff), special teams was always going to be a concern for both teams going into the game. It did not disappoint on that front, as both punters seemed to struggle to get any real mileage into their kicks. Every punt by either team left you holding your breath to see if the snap would get bobbled or if the kick would get shanked or muffed. This is exactly what happened to Central in the 2nd quarter, as one of their punter’s kicks went straight up into the air and resulted in a punt that went for about 4 net yards. Neville never had a punt that was that disastrous, but their results tended to be pretty bad themselves, which resulted in Central winning the field position battle at various points in the game.
After a scoreless 3rd quarter, the reality began to set in that Central could actually win this football game. There was a real world beginning to open up where the 10-7 lead Central had procured up to that point would actually be enough to win. That world quickly vanished in the 4th quarter as Neville finally put a real drive together for the first time in the entire game. Robinson finally found consistency and rhythm in the passing game, and Nichols kept moving the chains on the ground. Central’s D-Line was awesome, but Neville’s O-Line gave everything they had too, a fact best shown by Nichols’ 2nd touchdown of the day, which gave Neville the lead with 9 minutes left.
However, they missed the ensuing extra point, which made it only a field goal game. Since Central was held scoreless in the 2nd half, this was a very important PAT, since a field goal felt a lot more attainable from the Central offense than a TD, which a made PAT would have necessitated.
Central got the ball back down by 3 with 9 minutes left and the drive immediately stalled. They had to punt the ball and give it back to Neville, who broke off another long run from Jaylon Nichols to get them into the redzone. After Neville got to 1st and goal with 5 minutes left, the drive stalled again thanks to one last impressive stand from the Central defense.
And that brings us back to the field goal block. Let’s get another look at it, it really is that great of a play.
After a game where the special teams felt like it should help decide the game, it reared its ugly head for Neville at the very worst time, and Marvin Joseph pounced and led Central to the promise land. The last time Central played in the state championship game predated the existence of the superdome. This is the first time Central will ever play for a state championship in the dome, and there could not have been a sweeter way to do it.
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