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Baldwin rushed for 209 yards and two touchdowns, and Ryan LeDuc hit Dana Squibb with a 10-yard touchdown pass with 36 seconds to play to help the Tigers remain undefeated with a come-from-behind, 42-41 victory over North Thurston in Evergreen Conference play at South Sound Stadium on Thursday night.
Trailing 41-29 with less than two minutes left in the contest, the Tigers (5-0 overall, 3-0 league) got a touchdown pass from LeDuc to Andrew Pullin and the winning toss from LeDuc to Squibb to pull out the victory.
The winning TD came after Centralia recovered an onside kick.
North Thurston’s Lawyer Tillman rushed for 193 yards and four touchdowns, and Landon Rushton caught five passes for a school-record 193 yards and a score, but it wasn’t enough. The Rams, who lost 46-14 last week to Tumwater, dropped to 3-2 overall and 1-2 in EvCo play.
Tillman scored on runs of 4, 4 and 65 yards – the latter pushing North Thurston’s lead to 34-14 with 101/2 minutes to play in the game.Rushton also accounted for two scores, hauling in a 32-yard touchdown pass from Ben Broeker and adding a 9-yard scoring run.
Broeker threw for 250 yards on 9-of-16 accuracy.
Trailing 34-14, Centralia scored twice in a four-minute span, getting a 4-yard touchdown run from Baldwin and a 16-yard touchdown pass from LeDuc to Pullin.
Centralia had little difficulty moving the ball on its opening possession – getting large chunks of yardage from Baldwin before quarterback LeDuc ran it in from 16 yards out, giving the Tigers a 6-0 cushion six minutes into the contest.
North Thurston answered 31/2 minutes later to take a 7-6 lead on Tillman’s 4-yard scoring run. A 32-yard scoring strike from Broker to Rushton pushed the Rams’ lead to 14-6 midway through the second quarter.
LeDuc completed just two of four passes in the first half, but the completions went for a combined 104 yards. The second was a 41-yarder to Michael Stuart to set up Baldwin’s 9-yard TD run.
