With no rain in sight after several weeks of playing in the mud, the visiting Knox Central Panthers were happy to be able to show off their big-play ability Friday in a 41-3 rout of Harlan in the regular season finale for both teams.

Knox Central (6-4) put the game out of reach by scoring touchdowns on five of six possessions in the first half.

Senior tailback Chad Merida set the tone for the night with an 83-yard kickoff return to open the game. He added a 95-yard touchdown run later in the first quarter and finished with 186 yards rushing on 12 carries. Freshman receiver Jeffery Canady and sophomore quarterback Johnathan Barger hooked up for three touchdown passes, and sophomore tailback Johnathan Turpin added 121 yards rushing on 12 carries.

“We’ve used our athletes all year. We love to run the football, but when they stack it up in there our quarterback is good enough to sling it out,” Knox Central coach Wayne Mills said. “Our kids made some plays, and we got a good dry field. We’ve been handcuffed the last couple of weeks with the mud.”

“Their playmakers made plays,” noted Harlan coach J.B. Donahue. “I tried to tell everybody for a week this is a heck of a good football team. They’re young and took some lumps early, but they are playing a bunch of talented young kids who are starting to play into their roles. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit to see them and Bell County facing off again in three weeks.”

Knox Central (6-4) needed only eight plays to build a 21-0 lead. The Panthers scored their second second touchdown after a five-play drive following a fumble that featured a 22-yard run by Barger and a 15-yard run by Turpin. Barger rolled to his left and found Canady for a 22-yard scoring pass with 8:49 left in the second quarter. Sophomore Cody Diamond boomed the second of his five extra points for a 14-0 lead.

Austin Wolfe backed the Panthers up to their own 5 with a 53-yard punt that lineman Evan Dugger downed before it rolled into the end zone. The good kick just gave Merida a chance to add to his stats as he burst through the middle of the Harlan line and raced 95 yards for a touchdown with 5:41 left in the first quarter. Diamond’s extra point pushed Central’s advantage to 21-0.

Turpin had runs of 25 and 13 yards and Merida added a 14-yard run to set up a 14-yard scoring pass from Barger to Canady. Diamond’s extra point stretched the Panthers’ advantage to 28-0.

The Harlan offense finally came alive on the next series as the Dragons marched 75 yards in 10 plays, setting up a 29-yard field goal by Wolfe with 39.1 seconds left in the first half. Eric Robinson and Ben Cornett each caught passes from Aaron Carr in the scoring drive.

Knox Central recovered the ensuing kick near midfield and needed only two plays to reach the end zone, a 21-yard run by Merida and a 32-yard touchdown pass from Barger to Canady. Barger bought himself time by scrambling, allowing Canady to break free from the Harlan defender.

“(Barger) does a great job of staying alive back there behind the line of scrimmage until somebody gets open,” Donahue said. “Their kids do a great job of making breaks and getting open for him.”

The second half turned into a defensive struggle as the Dragons kept Knox Central out of the end zone until Kyle Hammons capped a 14-play drive with a 3-yard touchdown run with 46.2 seconds left. Substitutes were in the game on both sides at that point.

“We talked at halftime about giving a lot of effort and heart,” Donahue said. “We told them to forget the first half. All we’re doing is trying to build for next week and getting ready for the playoffs. I felt like we got a lot of heart and effort the second half.

“In particular, James Hill and Kenny Pennington left everything on the field.”

Harlan made several big plays on defense in the second half to slow down the Panthers’ offense. Freshman Dakota Morris recovered a fumble in the third quarter and sophomore linebacker Christian Turbyfill had an interception in the fourth quarter.

The Dragons drove to the Knox Central 2 after the second turnover, but a procedure penalty pushed Harlan back and the drive ended on an incomplete pass on fourth-and-goal from the 7 with 6:44 left.

Harlan was limited to 148 yards on the ground and standout senior tailback Andrew Link was limited to 91 yards, the first time this season he didn’t top 100 yards.

“I was real proud of our defense,” Mills said. “We were worried about (Link) and their offensive line. I felt our defensive line took it personal and wanted to be the better line tonight.”

The Panthers take a three-game winning streak into the 4A playoffs.

“We were 7-3 last year and lost all those seniors, so we’re doing OK and getting better going into the playoffs,” he said.

Harlan (5-5) will play host to Paintsville on Friday in the first round of the Class A playoffs.Big