4 standouts from Centauri at Florence in Class 1A quarterfinals

Strasburg and Limon have dominated the Class 1A classification in recent memory, so the matchup between undefeated No. 3 seed Florence and undefeated No. 6 seed Centauri was a test of who gets to battle the beasts. The two squared off in Florence on Saturday with the Falcons walking away with a 20-17 road upset of the Huskies and a date with No. 2 seed Strasburg in the semifinals. Here’s who stood out on Saturday: <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="22719" first="Mason" last="Claunch"], Centauri, RB/CB, 2022</strong> Centauri entered the playoffs outscoring opponents 348-15 in their six regular season games, a big thanks to Claunch running the ball 73 times for 870 yards and 21 TDs. Those type of results weren’t expected in an actual test against Florence, but Claunch still came up clutch. The junior carried the ball 37 times for 106 yards and scored the game-deciding touchdown in the fourth quarter. The 6-foot-1, 175-pound back constantly made guys miss and fought through tackles as the Huskies broke through the line all day. Still, Claunch found his way to 100 yards and made the difference for the Falcons in moving on. https://twitter.com/ajw_sports/status/1330268206796337152 <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="22658" first="Owen" last="Busetti"], Florence, RB/MLB, 2021<img class="size-medium wp-image-74683 alignright" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/redzone/uploads/2020/11/busetti-florence-300x142.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="142" /></strong> Busetti has been the heart of this Huskies team since he started as a freshman, and that was evident on Saturday against Centauri. Busetti got things going offensively for the Huskies when he delivered a Derrick Henry-like stiff arm to open up a 78-yard run. The Huskies would score their first touchdown a few plays later to take a 10-7 lead. Then, early in the fourth quarter, the 5-foot-11, 200-pound back put on the moves on a 36-yard TD run where he seemingly made every Falcon defender miss at one point. Busetti finished with 130 yards rushing on only 12 carries plus the one touchdown while also being a big part of containing Claunch to only 2.86 yards a carry, well below his season average of nearly 12. Busetti said he has received zero offers to the next level, but still plans on playing football for a four-year university no matter what. <strong>McKay Russell, Centauri, QB, 2021<img class="size-medium wp-image-74684 alignright" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/redzone/uploads/2020/11/russell-centauri-246x300.jpg" alt="" width="246" height="300" /></strong> The Falcons don’t pass the ball too much with only 77 pass attempts on the season coming into the matchup with Florence. Russell though has answered the bell every time his name his been called to throw and it was more of the same on Saturday. On a fourth-and-20 play on the Falcons first drive of the game, Russell hit Zach Buhr in stride for a 24-yard touchdown to get his squad on the board fast. He threw one more touchdown pass on a perfectly place ball to the back left corner of the end zone for [player_tooltip player_id="58956" first="Baron" last="Holman"], which gave the Falcons a 13-10 halftime lead. Russell continued to make plays with his arm when needed, finishing 12-for-15 for 125 yards, two TDs and one pick. https://twitter.com/ajw_sports/status/1330250762761482242 <strong>Bijah Cornell, Florence, TE/DE, 2021</strong> Cornell stood out simply because the 6-foot-5, 235-pound senior towered over everyone on the field. Cornell made one catch in the game for 35 yards that helped get the Huskies into the red zone. More importantly, Cornell came up with a huge sack on third down to start the fourth quarter that left the Falcons punting from their own 2-yard line. The punt only went to the Centauri 36-yard line, and Busetti broke off his touchdown run on the first play that put the Huskies up 17-13. Not only that, but Cornell proved he’s a great blocking TE all season as the Huskies had 866 yards rushing coming into the contest with only four regular season games played, an average of 216.5 a game. Florence finished with 22 yards rushing as a team on Saturday.