Ryan Roddy
Section618.com

CAHOKIA – There’s a saying in sports that defense wins championships. It’s not a championship yet, but the Centralia Orphans remain tied atop the South Seven and are now playoff eligible thanks to their defense.

The Orphans went on the road and shut out Cahokia 14-0, holding the Comanches to 82 total yards of offense in the victory.

Centralia got two touchdown runs from Amir Johnson to account for the offense. The first one was a 12-yard run late in the first quarter. The extra point gave the Orphans a 7-0 lead.

It remained 7-0 all the way to the final minute of the 3rd quarter when Johnson ran 60 yards for his second TD of the night and a 14-0 lead.

The rest of the night belonged to the Orphans’ defense that kept Cahokia out of the end zone all night.

The Orphans improve to 5-1 on the season and remain undefeated at 3-0, tied with Mt. Vernon for first place in the conference. Cahokia falls to 2-4 overall and 1-2 in the conference.

Two of Centralia’s final three games in the regular season will be at Evers Field, starting next Friday night with Marion. Cahokia will visit Mt. Vernon next Friday.