Running back Prentiss Brown was too much for St. Aloysius to handle Friday night, as Central Hinds rolled to a 42-21 win over the Flashes in the District 3-AAA opener for both teams.

Brown scored four touchdowns for Central Hinds on runs of 52, 38, 2 and 10 yards.

St. Al head coach Michael Fields said Brown had a good game, but the Central Hinds offensive line did a great job in the trenches.

“They have some big offensive linemen and they grinded, and grinded and grinded,” Fields said. “Again, they played to some things we have to improve on. But we didn’t quit. I thought in the second half we played hard and I feel like this was our first step in maturing and becoming a better football team.”

After Brown scored his first touchdown with 2:50 left in the opening quarter, Central Hinds went up 14-0 on an interception return for a score. Brown scored again with 10:17 left in the second quarter to make it 21-0.

The Flashes had a Brown of their own who stepped up big as the backup quarterback. Alvin Brown, under center in place of injured starter Phillip Upshaw, broke free on a long TD run to put St. Al on the board in the second quarter.

After Central Hinds (2-0, 1-0) went up 28-7 at halftime, the Flashes cut the deficit in half when Alvin Brown tossed a TD pass to Ryan Theriot to cap a nearly five-minute drive with 6:58 to play in the third quarter. But Central Hinds answered quickly when Prentiss Brown scored his third touchdown from 2 yards out with 5:09 left in the period.

Early in the fourth quarter, Prentiss Brown scored his fourth touchdown with a 10-yard run to make it 42-14.

Alvin Brown scored with 1:30 to play on his second long TD of the game for the final score of the night.
Fields liked what he saw from his backup quarterback, who also played through a hamstring injury.

“He stepped in admirably for Phillip and gives us another weapon when Phillip gets healthy,” Fields said. “Our offensive line opened some holes and played well.”

The loss drops the Flashes to 0-3 overall and 0-1 in the district, but Fields has a feeling his team will get on track. The 21 points were more than they’d scored in their first two games combined.

“We’ve played three good ballclubs early and I think we’re going to fight to turn this thing around,” Fields said.

St. Al returns to action next Friday at 7 p.m. when it hosts Washington School.