Central Section: Clovis North swamps 10th seed Centennial in Division I playoffs

The playoffs are a whole new season and Clovis North coach Mike Jacot liked how his team got rolling Friday night. 

"This is how you want to start the playoffs,” he said after his team's 40-7 Central Section Division I home victory over the Centennial Golden Hawks. 

The seventh-seeded Broncos (7-4) took leads of 16-0 and 26-0 over the first two quarters en route to the resounding win. 

Things figure to get tougher in the quarterfinals Thursday when they take on No. 2 seed Buchanan-Clovis (8-2), which has a little score to settle. Clovis North just knocked off the Bears 28-21 on Oct. 21. 

“We have to go and battle TRAC (Tri-River Athletic Conference) opponent now, so we wanted to start the right way and I felt like that’s what we did," Jacot said. 

Mario Cosma and Vincent Cordoba combined for two touchdown passes, while Jackson Cinfel had two rushing touchdowns. The Broncos defense forced three turnovers. 

“He [Mario] doesn’t get too many opportunities we run the ball so well. I wish he would take some more shots, but he takes care of the football,” Jacot said. “He did a great job tonight.”

After Centennial failed to score on the opening drive of the game, the Broncos took their first drive and scored when Cinfel ran in a touchdown from 4 yards away. This gave the Broncos a 7-0 lead.

Clovis East’s Trent Rogers intercepted a pass from Centennials quarterback Adam Copus on the ensuing possession. Clovis East converted on the turnover when McKay Madsen scored a rushing touchdown from 7 yards away to extend Clovis East’s lead to 14-0 with 2:12 left in the first quarter. 

Centennial snapped the ball over the punters head and out of the back of the end zone on their next possession for a safety. They trailed 16-0 after the first  quarter.

The Broncos scored on a 19-yard field goal from Ryan Kobzeff and a one yard touchdown from

Cinfel in the second quarter to take a 26-0 halftime lead.

Cosma and Cordoba connected on back-to-back touchdown passes within 14 seconds of each other to extend the Broncos lead to 40-0 after three quarters. 

After a 15-yard touchdown pass from Cosma to Cordoba made it 33-0 with 7:43 left in the third quarter, Nico Lewis intercepted the first play of the ensuing drive for the Golden Hawks. 

Cosma and Cordoba then connected on a 45-yard touchdown pass on the first play after the interception. 

“It was a great win tonight. I think it is because of the way we practiced,” Cosma said. ‘We practice physical in practice, Coach Jacot runs a great practice, and we play the way we practice and that is a result of that.”

Cosma said that the connection he has with Cordoba has been building since before the season.

“He has been my guy ever since I have been here. During the summer we knew that it was going to be this way,” Cosma said. “The defense played phenomenal, they came out and played fast and physical. We are hot and we are confident going into next week.”

The Golden Haws scored a late touchdown to avoid the shutout. They end their season 8-3. 

Though Clovis North's record isn't that impressive, the Broncos' play definitely is. They might be the hottest team peaking at the right time. 

“We started off the year with a little injury bug and the goal is to get better every week. We have done that,” Jacot said. “Our guys are believing in themselves, and we are just going to continue doing what we are doing. We have a lot of confidence, and we will see what happens the rest of the way.”

All photos below by Bobby Medellin