Aledo’s district winning streak still intact as Bearcats roll past unbeaten Centennial
Streak killers came to mind for Burleson Centennial after the Spartans snapped Denton Ryan’s 42-game district winning streak last week, a run that started in 2014.
Forty-two is a large number, but nothing like Friday night against Aledo.
Aledo came into the week with a national-record 108-game district winning streak, which began in 2007.
Could Centennial be streak killers again?
Not this time.
Aledo quarterback Hauss Hejny accounted for 425 yards and six touchdowns as the Bearcats rolled to their 109th straight win in district play, 64-21, at Burleson ISD Stadium in a 3-5A D1 contest.
The Bearcats, No. 5 in the state rankings and No. 3 in the area rankings, improve to 6-0 in district and 6-2 overall.
“It really doesn’t change anything for us. We know Centennial is a good football team, but we know what we’re capable of,” said Hejny, who rushed for 160 yards and two TDs. “For me, people were asking if the pressure is on you and I’m just like ‘no I’ll just go out there and relax and trust what we got going.’
“I’m extremely grateful and proud of the team.”
The Spartans, No. 6 and No. 4 respectively, drop to 4-1 and 6-1.
Centennial was 6-0 for the first time in program history.
“It’s just great to come together against a team like this, 6-0 and putting 64 points on them, we thought it was going to be a more tighter game than that. But I mean it’s kind of eye opening to see that we can beat a team this good like that so it’s extremely awesome,” Hejny said.
Aledo made a statement on the opening drive of the game when Hejny hit Jalen Pope on a 43-yard touchdown to give the Bearcats a 6-0 lead at the 9:25 mark.
Centennial answered with an 8-play drive, all runs, as Phillip Hamilton scored from the 4 with 4:38 left in the first quarter that gave the Spartans a 7-6 lead. Jahiem Ababio highlighted the drive with a 40-yard rush.
One play later and Hejny ran left end down the Aledo sideline for a 75-yard touchdown and after the two-point conversion, the Bearcats led 14-7.
“Hauss has really gotten better every week. It was big test for him tonight,” Aledo Tim Buchanan said. “Tonight we needed him to throw the ball and run the ball and man, did he ever answer the bell.”
The Spartans answered the bell again after Elijah Zeh scored from the 5 to tie the game at 14.
Hejny hit Pope again, from 32 yards, to give Aledo a 21-14 lead, which it wouldn’t give up, midway through the second quarter. Hejny added a 52-yard TD run to make it 28-14 at halftime.
“Jalen has been our number one guy all throughout the season,” Hejny said. “You can always count on him.”
Hejny and Gavin Olenjack connected twice early in the third quarter, from 42 and 76 yards, to up the Aledo lead to 42-21 with 8:45 left in the period.
“Gavin got his first touchdown pass and then to get two. It was great to see that,” Hejny said.
Centennial did score in between the two TDs from Olenjack as Zeh went up the middle untouched 83 yards out.
Davhon Keys (16 yards), Hawk Patrick-Daniels (8) and Ryan Cox (17) added TD runs for Aledo as the lead grew to 64-21 early in the fourth quarter.
Hejny passed for 265 yards and four TDs.
Pope was the leading receiver with 118 yards and two TDs on seven catches. Patrick-Daniels had 43 yards rushing and Olenjack had the two catches for 118 yards.
Zeh led Centennial with 106 yards rushing. The Spartans rushed for over 250 yards.
“Before the season, I told everybody that we’d be pretty good on defense,” Buchanan said. “Well we showed it tonight. Once we got used to what they were doing, our defense line started dominating the line of scrimmage and at that point, we became very physical.”
This story was originally published October 14, 2022 at 9:27 PM.
