INDEPENDENCE A lot of good high school football teams can weather the storm when one or two of their star players go down with injuries.
When they lose three or four, even the most faithful of their fans start to worry.
And when one of the team’s top playmakers is marked so effectively that he looks relatively ordinary, it would appear that team would be in dire straits.
But when you factor in a quarterback with the poise and experience of Central High School junior Peter Mendazona, you’re going to have a chance in any game, no matter how bad the situation appears.
Central’s Peter Mendazona (10) throws to an open teammate at a game against Dallas on Friday, Sept. 30, 2016, at Central High Schoo in Independence. The pass was blocked by Dallas’ Cade Caudill (5).
The 6-foot, 165 pound second year starter uses a rare combination of football IQ and presence in the pocket, players rally around him and feed off his confidence on the field.
“I think that he’s really matured from last year and his football smarts are incredible,” said senior receiver Jackson Holstad. “He’s one of the smartest guys on the team, straight up.
“We can’t ask anything more from him. He’s playing great, thinking great, he’s a great guy, and I have all the faith in the world in him.”
In Friday’s 21-20 upset of No. 6-ranked Dallas, Mendazona was 18 of 26 passing for 189 yards and a touchdown. For the season, he’s completed 63 percent of his passes for 1,116 yards and 14 touchdowns.
More importantly, though, he has yet to throw an interception and doesn’t make mistakes.
The Panthers (2-0 Mid-Willamette Conference, 3-2 overall) knew they were going to be without two of their starters coming into Friday’s game as Washington commit Marlon Tuipulotu and Will Cable roamed the sidelines in street clothes.
But the loss of leading senior running back Alvin Berroa and the team’s second-leading receiver Isiah Abraham after Abraham took a screen pass from Mendazona 34 yards for a touchdown on the first series of the game, it was a setback.
“I’d just like to be at 100 percent one game this year,” Central coach Shane Hedrick said. “That would be fun.”
Then Dallas (1-1 Mid-Willamette, 4-1 overall) limited the threat of senior receiver Peter Mason, the first time a team has this season.
Mason has caught 29 passes for 576 yards and six touchdowns for the season, staggering numbers for being five games into the season.
But the Dragons effectively double covered him the whole game and limited him to three receptions for 67 yards.
“They’ve seen us hit him deep a lot this year, so they had a guy right on him and then they had a safety or a deep corner on him,” Mendazona said. “He was just going to fall back and we couldn’t really hit him deep. They did a good job of taking him away.”
Taking away a quarterback’s favorite target and the team’s best down-field threat would fluster most quarterbacks to the point where they would force things and make mistakes.
But Mendazona played it smart and though he only targeted Mason five times he spread the ball around to seven receivers, didn’t throw an interception and though he had to hang in the pocket for extended periods he was only sacked once.
Where Mendazona’s arm provided the majority of the Panthers’ offense the first half – 118 of his team’s 147 yards – Central committed to the ground game in the second half, and Mendazona played a part in that, too.
He ran for a four-yard touchdown on a keeper with 5:23 left to give the Panthers a 14-12 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Mendazona doesn’t have blazing speed with his legs, but the element of surprise works sometimes, too.
Photo gallery: Central defeats Dallas 21-20
“It was good,” Mendazona said of the running game. “They don’t have very many people in the box so we really had to get that established. Once we could do that, we could open up the air attack. Simple as that.”
Central got the ball back with 6:22 left and a 21-20 lead and needed to run out the clock.
But with just over two minutes left, Central faced a fourth and seven from Dallas’ 30-yard line. Mendazona stood tall in the pocket, hit little-used Marcos Cedillo on a crossing route over the middle for a first down to put the game out of the reach and displayed confidence and smarts beyond his years.
“Peter has really, really met my expectations and moved even forward with them,” Hedrick said. “He had some really nice balls tonight that only our guy could catch, controlled the offense like wanted him to do.”
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com, 503-399-6701 or Twitter.com/bpboehler
Central 21, Dallas 20
DAL 6 6 0 8-20
CEN 7 0 14 0-21
-First quarter
CEN: Isiah Abraham 31 pass from Peter Mendazona (Bailey kick) 10:16.
DAL: Jacob Collins 19 run (kick fail) 1:18.
-Second quarter
DAL: Caedmon Blair 1 run (run fail) 2:11.
-Third quarter
CEN: Mendazona 4 run (Bailey kick) 5:23.
CEN: Andrew Reyna 10 run (Bailey kick) :54.
-Fourth quarter
DAL: Tanner Earhart 1 run (Earhart run) 8:44.