{"id":223,"date":"2013-10-18T03:52:13","date_gmt":"2013-10-18T03:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=223"},"modified":"2013-10-18T03:52:13","modified_gmt":"2013-10-18T03:52:13","slug":"centre-football-pursues-excellence-in-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2013\/10\/18\/centre-football-pursues-excellence-in-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Centre Football Pursues Excellence in 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

By AUDREY ASH<\/strong> – CENTO WRITER<\/em><\/p>\n

With a philosophy like \u201cPursue Excellence with a Vengeance,\u201d it\u2019s not surprising that Centre Football has started off the 2013 season with three straight wins. Centre delivered the opening weekend of the semester with a strong win over Bethany College.<\/p>\n

In the final minute of the game, the defense pulled through by intercepting an end-zone pass that had been tipped, preventing a potential touchdown that would have put the Bisons ahead. This is no shock, though, according to Coach Andy Frye, head coach of Centre\u2019s football program. \u201cDefense is definitely a strength,\u201d Coach Frye said.<\/p>\n

But defense isn\u2019t the only part of Centre\u2019s game with great potential.<\/p>\n

Compared to last year, one of the team\u2019s goals is to play with \u201cjet tempo.\u201d This means they plan on \u201csnapping the ball quickly, leaving the other team in their base defense and eventually tiring them out,\u201d senior quarterback Kyle Cook said.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Matin Carrol<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So far, this new mode of playing has really paid off. In the second game of the season, Centre beat Rose-Hulman 27-17.<\/p>\n

Helping with this updated style of offense are the first year players. \u201cWe\u2019ve got potential… We\u2019ve got a really talented freshman class. As far as skilled positions this is one of the best in a long time,\u201d Frye said.<\/p>\n

Alex Ward, a first-year kicker, along with Preston Cahill, junior placekicker, are the current prospects for replacing the Centre alumnus Jordan Gay, who graduated last spring and broke many Centre records with his kicking prowess.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlex Ward is coming along well, and he has definitely kicked off the season pretty good. It helps to have two returning kickers, Andrew O\u2019Bannon and Preston Cahill, to kind of show Ward what to do and coach him along until he gets used to the system. So far, they\u2019re doing an excellent job of that,\u201d Jordan Gay said, confident about Centre\u2019s season this year.<\/p>\n

The first-years seem to be making a successful transition and even this early into the season the team considers themselves to be a \u201cteam made up of brothers,\u201d first year wide receiver Max Mazza said.<\/p>\n

As for the returning players, the only place even remotely inexperienced is the offensive line, where four out of the five positions graduated and the only remaining player of the line is injured.<\/p>\n

Junior Heath Haden, returned this year as starting quarterback, and Harry Meisner, running back, completed the second game over Rose-Hulman with 106 yards and three touchdowns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guys on the team are all pretty excited about the returning defensive line and wide receivers,\u201d Cook said. Austin Jones, a senior wide-receiver, gave reason for excitement as he scored two touchdowns the first game of the season.<\/p>\n

During Family Weekend the Colonels took on one of their biggest opponents, the Washington and Lee Generals, who Centre lost to in a crushing game last season.<\/p>\n

The rivalry between the two college\u2019s football teams is longstanding, \u201cone of the longest in D3 football,\u201d according to Coach Frye. Centre won the game with a score of 37 to 28. The team rallied after falling behind 14-0 in the first quarter. Junior quarterback Heath Haden finished the game with a career high in passing yards (374) and completions (31). Senior receiver Austin Jones tied a school, single game record for receptions with 12.<\/p>\n

The Colonels will look to continue their winning streak this Saturday, Sept. 28 in St. Louis, Mo. against Washington University, kick-off at 1 pm.<\/p>\n

The outlook on the upcoming season is a promising one, centered on the team\u2019s powerful motto. \u201cOur goal is to win conference and to play for a national championship, but we aren\u2019t going to sacrifice our philosophy for a win… [We] want our players to learn to do this in every part of their lives,\u201d Frye said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I coach; it\u2019s the reason I\u2019ve been coaching for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By AUDREY ASH – CENTO WRITER With a philosophy like \u201cPursue Excellence with a Vengeance,\u201d it\u2019s not surprising that Centre Football has started off the 2013 season with three straight wins. Centre delivered the opening weekend of the semester with a strong win over Bethany College. In the final minute of the game, the defense […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":224,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}