‘Fueled’ by Jayden Hanson, Central City’s 7 takeaways lead to a first-round playoff win

CENTRAL CITY — Jayden Hanson could have gotten frustrated.

Instead, he got “fueled.”

“I made two mistakes (in pass coverage) that let them score,” Hanson said. “That fueled me. I had to get revenge.”

Hanson’s first three interceptions of the season highlighted a seven-takeaway performance, and sixth-ranked Central City recovered from a sluggish first half to push past Lansing Kee, 52-28, in an 8-Player first-round playoff football game Friday night at the Alex Evans Athletic Complex.

“We played the worst half of our season,” said Aidan Klostermann, who rushed for 243 yards and three second-half touchdowns. “This is the playoffs. You lose, you go home.”

Central City (8-1) won its eighth consecutive game and will host a second-round game next week. Their opponent will be revealed Saturday morning.

There’s a pretty good chance that they’ll be without Matthew Klostermann, who suffered an apparent knee injury midway through the second quarter.

“He’s one of our key players,” Hanson said. “To see him go down was tragic. I hope we get him back. We need him going forward.”

Kee quarterback Dalton Mudderman riddled the Wildcats early, passing for 158 first-half yards as the Hawks (5-4) took a 20-14 lead into the locker room.

But the Wildcats dialed up more heat on Mudderman after intermission, and that made all the difference.

After Central City tied the game on a broken play (Hanson picked up a loose ball and spotted Mekhi Benton, who took it the distance for a 59-yard TD reception to make it 20-20), Daiton Price and Favre Weber teamed to make the play of the game.

On third-and-5 from the Kee 23, Price blitzed and forced a Mudderman fumble. Weber picked it up an rambled 8 yards for the go-ahead score.

“That was huge,” Central City Coach Matt Miers said. “(Mudderman) is great. We couldn’t keep giving him time to throw.”

The Wildcats didn’t trail again. A 30-point third quarter turned that 20-14 halftime deficit into a 44-28 advantage.

“Jayden had a heck of a game,” Aidan Klostermann said. “It was crazy, to come out of halftime and score, then the defense gets a scoop and score ... I think it took a lot out of them.”

Central City finished with five interceptions and recovered two fumbles.

Before the injury, Matt Klostermann ran for 89 yards, including a 65-yard TD sprint. Hanson passed for 111 yards.

For Kee, Mudderman was 14 of 34 with those five interceptions and 215 yards. His touchdown strikes of 39 and 34 yards, both to Carter Seitz, sent Kee to an early 12-6 lead.

Central City held the Hawks to 36 rushing yards on 23 carries.

Miers said he is “not a yeller or screamer.” His halftime message was this:

“I just said that we had played our worst half of football in years. Whatcha got, guys?”

Enough to play for another week, at least.

Central City 52, Lansing Kee 28

8-Player First Round, at Central City

TEAM STATISTICS

First downs: Kee 13, CC 20

Rushes-yards: Kee 23-36, CC 49-364

Passing yards: Kee 215, CC 111

Passing: Kee 14-34-5, CC 4-9-0

Total yards: Kee 251, CC 475

Fumbles-lost: Kee 2-2, CC 3-1

Punts-average: Kee 2-32.5, CC 4-24.5

Penalties-yards: Kee 3-28, CC 12-88

SCORING SUMMARY

Lansing Kee 12 8 8 0 — 28

Central City 14 0 30 8 — 52

CC — Jayden Hanson 12 run (run failed)

KEE — Carter Seitz 39 pass from Dalton Mudderman (pass failed)

KEE — Seitz 34 pass from Mudderman (pass failed)

CC — Matt Klostermann 65 run (M. Klostermann run)

KEE — Mudderman 1 run (Jordan Cota pass from Mudderman)

CC — Mekhi Benton 59 pass from Jayden Hanson (pass failed)

CC — Favre Weber 8 fumble return (Aidan Klostermann run)

KEE — Mudderman 3 run (Mudderman run)

CC — Aidan Klostermann 49 run (Hanson run)

CC — A. Klostermann 5 run (Hanson run)

CC — A. Klosterman 26 run (Christopher Greif run)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing

Kee — Dalton Mudderman 22-34, Carter Seitz 1-2. Central City — Aidan Klostermann 24-243, Matthew Klostermann 7-89, Jayden Hanson 13-35, Christopher Greif 3-16, Mekhi Benton 1-0, Team 1-(minus 3).

Passing

Kee — Mudderman 14-34-5-215. Central City — Hanson 4-9-0-111.

Receiving

Kee — Seitz 5-102, Jackson Schulte 4-65, Kaleb Drape 3-36, Tanner Troendle 1-6, Jordan Cota 1-6. Central City — Benton 1-59, A. Klostermann 1-28, M. Klostermann 1-13.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com