A Big Time Thumping
By Rudy Rodriguez-Chomat
Sept. 4, 2002

Who was that guy that scored 2 touchdowns on the defensive side of the ball? They call him Arlee, but we know him as ARLINGTON HIGHSMITH. Final score, Highsmith 12 Killian 0. 'Nuff said.

            The Central Rockets rolled 32-0 over the Cougars, but Mr. Highsmith took care of Killian all by himself on two consecutive fumbles recoveries on punts scoring two touchdowns to give the Rockets the blowout win before 3,500 at Traz Powell.

            It was billed as the #1 vs. #3 teams in the Class 6A state poll, but didn't live up to that billing as the Central defense, behind Highsmith and defensive end Bryan Pata, steamrolled Killian and star running back Bobby Washington into the ground. He was held to 37 yards on 17 carries.

         "We did a good job coming in focused," Central head coach Anthony Saunders said. "We made a few mistakes we need to eliminate, but we made some big plays and that is something we focus on."

Pata led the way for the defensive line of the Rockets with 2 sacks, 2 tackles for loss and 8 tackles overall, spending most of the game in the Cougars' backfield.

"He is phenomenal," Saunders said of Pata. "In his heart he can't be stopped and Highsmith is an All-American."

Early on, it looked like Central would be able to score at will on the Killian defense marching right down the field on a 13 play 74 yard drive that culminated with a 5-yard fade pattern from QB Courtney Denson to WR Marcus Daniels, but from that point on the Cougar defense stiffened and limited the Rockets to only 6 more offensive points.

The rest of the damage was done by Highsmith and Vincent Leno who returned an interception 38 yards on Killian's first possession to open a 16-0 lead early in the third. Highsmith's touchdowns further knocked out the Cougars.

"We were #1 and we just had to live up to the #1 ranking," Pata said. "Everyone expected Killian to win and we put it to them."

After the interception came the Highsmith show when he was all over the punter in the blink of an eye and in one swift motion hit the punter and grabbed the ball falling into the endzone. On the next Killian punt, the ball was snapped over the punters head. Before the punter could turn around Highsmith was past him pouncing on the ball in the endzone.

"We still have more to prove," Highsmith said. "We came out to prove to everyone why we are #1, but will still have a lot of mistakes to correct."