Parkway Central Ruins Parkway North's Homecoming Fun With 26-7 Football Victory

PARKWAY NORTH HIGH SCHOOL – The celebrated everything wonderful about and its wonderful 40 years of football history.

But the afternoon Homecoming football game itself, belonged to the party-crashers from , who quieted the celebration-minded North fans early, and kept them that way for the rest of the day, with a 26-7 win over the beloved host Vikings.

“This one sure feels good,” Central head coach Mark Goldenberg said. “We lost to those guys three years in a row. My seniors and I, my staff, we we’re just getting tired of it. So it feels good to finally get one on those guys.”

Central’s last win over North came on October 26, 2007, when star running back Jordan Myles ran for 196 yards and scored two touchdowns in a 38-14 victory for the Colts.

On Saturday, it was Central’s current workhorse runner, junior Alan Gasanli, who starred for the Colts, as he carried the ball 22 times for 165 yards and two touchdowns of his own, to power the visitors to the win.

Gasanli’s first score of the day really set the tone for the entire afternoon, when he broke loose down the left sideline, on a 4th-and-17 play, for a 32-yard touchdown that quieted the North crowd and gave the Colts the lead.

“That was some great coaching right there, let me tell you,” Goldenberg said. “Genius I am, I wanted to punt. But my special teams coach said, ‘we’re on the 32, let’s run a play.’ We worked on that play all week, and it worked just right today.”

North coach Bob Bunton, watching from the other sideline, saw Gasanli’s 32-yard burst a bit differently.

“We should’ve had that play stopped,” he said. “We had a defender right there and he just didn’t play it right.”

Gasanli added another score late in the first half, that gave the Colts a 20-0 edge at the break.

At that point, Central knew it could control the rest of the game with its powerful offensive line.

“We were running sweeps and blasts all game,” Gasanli said. “We knew our offensive line could dominate and be a difficult matchup for them.”

Late in the third, the Colts went up 26-0, when seniors Cole Gorman and Andre Booker hooked up for a 43-yard scoring strike that gave Central the most points it had scored against North since that last win back in 2007.

“There's no doubt that they are a better team than us,” Bunton said. “During a season like this you look for small gains. We outscored them 7-0 in the (final quarter) with a chance to put in another one. We never quit fighting.”

Indeed they didn’t.

In fact, North seemed to finally find its footing in the fourth quarter, and dominated the action during that final 12 minutes.

Senior Donavin Newsom scored on a 3-yard run early in the fourth to get the Vikes on the board, and nearly led them on another scoring drive later, but a penalty and a fumbled snap quelled North’s momentum and prevented any thought of a comeback.

Newsom finished the game with 87 rushing yards, while backfield mate Jovonte Suber added 52 yards for a North offense that totaled 267 yards of offense.

“I thought our defense did a great job today,” Goldenberg said. “We’re getting to that time of the year where you hope you team is getting better and playing its best. I thought we took a step towards that today." 

Central will get perhaps its biggest test of the season next week, when the Colts (7-1) will host unbeaten and statewide No. 2-ranked Webster Groves (8-0) at PCH Stadium, Friday night at 7 p.m.

The winner of that contest will clinch for itself the Class 5 District 6 championship, as well as a home playoff game, when the state football tournament begins in November.

North (4-4) will host its final home game of the season Friday night, when it takes on Prep (4-4), in a 7 p.m. contest, that will eliminate the loser from playoff contention.

Scoring Summary

Score by Quarters

F

Parkway Central

7

13

6

0

26

Parkway North

0

0

0

7

7

First Quarter

PC: Alan Gasanli 32 yd run (Zack Lazenby kick), 8:47

Second Quarter

PC: Jace Roman 10 yd run (Zack Lazenby kick), 11:30

PC: Alan Gasanli 8 yd run (kick blocked), 1:05

Third Quarter

PC: Andre Booker 43 yd pass from Cole Gorman (no kick), 1:40

Fourth Quarter

PN: Donavin Newsom 3 yd run (Michael Bozarth kick), 9:00