Rodriguez, Warriors steamroll Tigers’ homecoming

The Rochester football team just kept chugging away Friday, rolling out yet another powerful effort on the ground in a 52-14 win at Centralia.

This time around, it was Ethan Rodriguez’s turn to lead the Warriors (4-1, 3-0 2A EvCo). The sophomore took 15 carries for 189 yards, and scored Rochester’s first three touchdowns of the evening on runs of 41, 6 and 32 yards.

“They kind of took some things away on the inside, and Ethan did a really good job,” Rochester coach AJ Easley said. “Sometimes young, fast kids really want to bounce everything to the outside, but we’ve been working to keep him cutting across the grain, and he did that a few times.”

Palmer Watt added 121 yards and a touchdown, while Tate Quarnstrom had 74 yards and a score.

Jay Johnson capped the scoring with a 70-yard touchdown run; as a team, the Warriors pounded out all 502 of their offensive yards on the ground.

“We just kind stayed the course,” Easley said. “Guys churned out the hard yards. Our defense actually played really, really well tonight, got us the ball a lot with really good field position.”

Once, the defense did the scoring for the offense, when Kole Smith took an interception back to the house.

Terrell Sanders finished 6 for 21 for Centralia, with a touchdown pass to Roberto Rosales in the first quarter and a touchdown run in the fourth. Landen Jenkins caught two passes for 27 yards, and Kellen Rooklidge had 37 rushing yards for the Tigers (0-5, 0-2 2A EvCo).

The road is about to get a whole lot harder for Rochester; after three league wins against teams that are a combined 1-14, they’re set to wrap up league play with three matchups against teams that are 6-1 in EvCo play. 

First up is a matchup against W.F. West; the Warriors haven’t beaten the Bearcats since they moved up to 2A in 2016.

“The kids should be really proud of where we’re out,” Easley said. “We’ve got a big dragon to slay next week.”