High School football

Before an overflow crowd on Friday night at home, the Century Knights took their place among the best Carroll County teams of all time.

Their 34-17 victory over Liberty completed a perfect regular season and made the Knights the first county team in 30 years to finish with a 10-0 record.

Century equaled the 1978 North Carroll Panthers, who also went 10-0 but lost in the first round of the playoffs.

The top-seeded Knights will try to avoid a similar fate Friday, when they host fourth-seed Liberty for the second consecutive week in a Class 2A West Region first-round game. The Liberty-Century winner will face the Middletown-Clarksburg victor in next week's regional final.

"I have to give all the credit to the kids because they're the ones who do the hard work," said fourth-year Century head coach Tony Shermeyer. "Early in the season, we looked at the schedule and determined that there wasn't a game we couldn't win. It depended on our senior leadership, and our seniors came through big time."

For the third time in four weeks, Century came from behind to win. Liberty led Century, 10-7, at half-time, but the Knights outscored the Lions by a 27-7 margin in the final half to clinch their undefeated regular season.

"Our kids wanted to be 10-0," Shermeyer said. "At half-time there was no sense of urgency. They had the ball nearly the entire first half and we were only down 10-7. We were calm and the kids knew they just needed to settle down and get the job done in the second half."

Century had used the power running of senior fullback Cory Anderlik and the speed of senior wide receiver Luke Wright to put away most opponents. Liberty held both in check for most of the game, but other Knights came through.

Junior quarterback Josh Bordner played his most complete game of the season, connecting on 13 of 18 passes for 161 yards and scoring the go-ahead touchdown on an 11-yard run on the opening drive of the second half.

With Anderlik held to 27 yards on 12 carries and Wright gaining only 24 yards on two catches, Bordner looked to junior Zach Zile and seniors Robbie Castor and Adam Patterson to gain yardage against the Lion defense.

Tight end Zile was the Knights' top receiver with 60 yards on four catches. Castor and Patterson, who each caught two passes for 26 yards, made clutch receptions to keep Knight drives alive.

"My line gave me a lot of time tonight, so I could sit back there and pick out who was open," said Bordner. "It happened to be some other guys who stepped up tonight."

While their production on the offensive side was limited, Anderlik and Wright still had a major impact on the outcome. Anderlik picked off a Geoff Suddath pass and returned it 35 yards to give Century an early 7-0 lead.

After Liberty narrowed the gap to 21-17 in the fourth quarter, Wright fielded a short Lion kickoff and dashed 69 yards down the sideline for the game-clinching touchdown. Anderlik added the final score when he dragged two Liberty tacklers into the end zone on a 12-yard touchdown run that gave Century a 34-17 lead with 4:31 remaining.

Century's offense was limited to nine plays in a one-sided first half. The Lions employed a perfect game plan as county rushing leader Ethan Dorsey plowed for good yardage and kept the ball out of Century's hands.

Dorsey carried 19 times for 92 yards in the first half. After Anderlik's touchdown return, Dorsey gained 24 yards on the ensuing drive that concluded with Will Castillo's one-yard plunge for the tying touchdown at the 11:28 mark of the second quarter.

Century fumbled the kickoff, and Mike Swiontek kicked a 25-yard field goal to put Liberty ahead, 10-7.

"That just made us play harder," said Zile, who doubles as a Knight linebacker. "We needed to get the ball back for our offense so they could get into their rhythm."

The Knights, held without a first down for the opening half, picked up five of them on the way to Bordner's 11-yard touchdown run.

On the next drive, Zile picked up a first down with an eight-yard grab and Bordner hit Patterson for a 13-yard gain. After Bordner was sacked for a loss, he scrambled to his left and hit a diving Castor at the Liberty two-yard line. On the next play, Mike Conway went up the middle for a two-yard touchdown.

Liberty answered quickly, taking only five plays to march 63 yards and narrow the margin to 21-17. Suddath ran down the right sideline for a 52-yard gain and found Joseph for a 19-yard scoring pass on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Liberty had been trying to kick away from Wright all night, but the senior made them pay on the ensuing kickoff. Wright fielded a low kick at the Century 31, faked left and exploded down the right sideline for the 69-yard scoring return.

"I was just trying to get the ball, because they were bearing down hard," said Wright, in his fourth varsity season with the Knights. "When I moved outside, there was no one there but the kicker."

After a Lion three-and-out, Century embarked on a drive that took over six minutes and resulted in Anderlik's second touchdown of the night at the 4:31 mark of the fourth quarter. The senior fullback gained the final 30 yards on the march.

"We just let it get away from us in the second half," said Lion head coach Jeff Kent. "Fortunately, we get to come right back out here next week."

One of the toughest accomplishments in sports is beating the same team twice in a season. Now, Century will be challenged to do it in consecutive games.

"We know what they've got, and they know what we've got," Shermeyer said. "It's just a matter of perfecting what we do and stopping them from running the football. The atmosphere was incredible tonight. They (Liberty) came last night and painted our field, which got our guys fired up and wanting to send a message.

"That's what a rivalry is all about," he added. "Now we get to play them again next week, hopefully in this same atmosphere."

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