After his Montgomery County football team lost 26-8 to the Centralia Panthers in a Class 2, District 6 quarterfinal game on Oct. 29, coach John Klekamp had to make a 17-minute end of the season speech in the locker room.

During that speech, he had to say goodbye to 12 seniors who played their last football game at MCHS. The seniors helped the Wildcats win 25 games in four years.

“I’m super proud of this group of seniors for all they accomplished in the program,” Klekamp said.

The Wildcats, the No. 4 seed in the seven-team district tournament, finished their season at 6-4 with the loss to Centralia, their third straight winning record. It’s the first time they played the Panthers since 2009.

“We haven’t played them in a while, since I was an assistant,” Klekamp said. “I haven’t played them as a head coach. One of the assistants (Ben Sontheimer) and I are really good friends. He actually used to coach here. He and I coached our first varsity football season here in Montgomery County. He did a really good job calling their offense tonight.”

Centralia improved to 6-4. The Panthers will play top-seeded Hallsville in the semifinals on Nov. 6. Hallsville beat Centralia 46-12 in a week 2 game on Sept. 3.

“We started out 1-3, so I felt like we have come a long way,” Centralia coach Tyler Forsee said. “We’re a much better team than what we were in week two. Hopefully, we can throw in a good performance and kind of show them how far we’ve come.”

Junior quarterback Adam Czerniewski provided the Wildcats’ only points of the game, scoring a 90-yard touchdown run and a two-point conversion with 1:38 left in the contest.

Beau Gordon and Kyden Wilkerson each scored a pair of touchdowns for the Panthers, who are seeded fifth. Gordon scored a five-yard touchdown run with 8:51 left in the first and a 14-yard run with 7:47 to go in the second. Wilkerson had a 10-yard run with 30.7 seconds left in the second and 24-yard run in the third.

Centralia clinched its third straight winning season and its sixth in the last seven years.

“Centralia has been a successful football program for as long as I can remember, going back to when coach Earl Bennett was there,” Klekamp said. “They’re probably one of the most storied programs in mid-Missouri. They’ve won a lot of football games and won state championships. So it’s a good football program that we lost to.”

Forsee said he was happy that his team started its postseason with a victory on the road.

“Montgomery County is a hard-fought team,” the Centralia coach said. “They have a lot of good players there. We had to play well. Otherwise, it would be our last week.”

The Panthers ended the high school football careers of Evan Abercrombie, Trenton Clardy, Josh Gilbert, Logan Hutcheson, Keenan James, Thomas Klekamp, Blake LaBrier, Ty Leu, Gavin Mendoza, Will Schoue, Drake Smith and Tommy Williams. Most of them played with the MCHS program all four years.

“They’re a great group of friends,” said James, who had an interception in the first quarter. “I love every single one of them. I wished that we could have one more year, but it’s sad that we’re done.”