A small sophomore made a big impression for Center-Stanton Tuesday night.

Wendlin Berger, a 5-foot-9, 138-pound quarterback, racked up 139 yards from scrimmage - all in the first half - and finished with an even 200 all-purpose to lead the Wildcats to a 34-8 9-man Region 6 victory over the Shiloh Christian Skyhawks at Hughes Field. It was the season opener for both teams.

Berger, who made his first varsity start at quarterback, completed four of five passes for 77 yards, carried seven times for 62, and returned three punts for another 61. He scored two touchdowns and threw a pair of 2-point conversion passes.

"Obviously, we're very happy with what we saw in Wendlin tonight," Center-Stanton coach Scott Jung said. "He started as a defensive back for us last year, but he didn't take many snaps at quarterback. But he's a great athlete and we put him at that position this year because he has a lot of ability. He can throw the ball and run with it. And he has a good head on his shoulders. He made some good decisions."

Berger's performance exceeded his own expectations.

"A little bit," he said. "It was my first start and I really didn't know what to expect. I came in hoping to make some plays and help my team win. Overall, it was an encouraging start."

Berger and the C-S offense didn't get it going until the second quarter, when the Wildcats erupted for three touchdowns and 22 points. Berger came up big in the first C-S scoring drive. His 28-yard punt return put the Wildcats on the Shiloh 36. After a five-yard loss and a holding penalty moved the ball back to the Shiloh 48, Berger connected with Joey Barth for 18 yards and then scampered the final 30 for the first TD of the contest.

After a Shiloh punt, Berger started a 71-yard TD drive with a 40-yard pass completion to Tyler Price. Five plays later, Berger dove in from the 1-yard stripe and then passed to Price for the 2-pointer to make it 14-0 with 3:13 left in the half.

Another Shiloh punt followed, this time putting the Wildcats on their own 23 with under a minute left. A 12-yard loss and a motion penalty pushed C-S back to the 6-yard line, but after Berger and Price hooked up for 18 yards, Jacob Henke took a handoff on a reverse and raced 76 yards down the right sideline for C-S's third TD of the quarter. Berger passed to Barth for the 2-pointer.

"We made the plays when we needed them," Berger said. "Penalties and negative plays set us back, but we recovered."

The Wildcats dialed up long distance twice in the third quarter. Skyler Johnson darted 48 yards to paydirt with 9:14 left, and Henke broke loose for a 99-yard scoring run as time expired.

Henke, a 165-pound senior, finished with 238 yards rushing. Johnson added 72.

"With Henke, Johnson, Price and now Berger, this is probably the most big-play capability we've had since I started here three years ago," Jung said. "We saw a lot of that tonight, but we can't always rely on the big play. We need to work on getting the hard yards. Move the chains, sustain drives."

Shiloh's offense, meanwhile, played much better in the second half after gaining only 45 total yards in the first 24 minutes. However, the Skyhawks had a difficult time finishing their drives, stalling on the C-S 13- and 1-yard lines in the third quarter.

Shiloh finally broke through on its first possession of the fourth quarter, scoring on R.J. Miller's 1-yard run with 6:26 left. Quarterback Wyatt Knell and tight end Mitchel Nickolauson connected for the extra points.

The Skyhawks finished with 240 total yards - 222 rushing. Knell ran for 92 yards, and R. J. Miller, Jacob Adducci and Zane Miller added 44, 40 and 36, respectively.

"We didn't have a good start tonight, but we had a good second half and a lot of people contributed. …. That's something we can build on," Shiloh coach Bart Brackin said. "The big problem we had was we didn't do a very good job maintaining and finishing our drives. When you have opportunities in close, you have to make good on them."

Center-Stanton 0 22 12 0 - 34

Shiloh 0 0 0 8 - 8

Scoring summary

First quarter

No scoring

Second quarter

C-S - Wendlin Berger 30 run (run failed), 10:08.

C-S - Berger 1 run (Tyler Price pass from Berger), 3:13.

C-S - Jacob Henke 76 run (Joey Barth pass from Berger), :33.

Third quarter

C-S - Skyler Johnson 48 run (run failed), 9:14.

C-S - Henke 99 run (run failed), :00.

Fourth quarter

SC - R.J. Miller 1 run (Mitchel Nickolauson pass from Wyatt Knell), 6:26.

Team statistics

C-S SC

First downs 11 10

Rushes-yards 36-387 40-222

Passing yards 77 18

Com-Att-Int 4-5-0 5-12-0

Turnovers 2 1

Penalties-yards 3-20 2-15

Individual statistics

RUSHING: C-S - Jacob Henke 10-238, Skyler Johnson 10-72, Wendlin Berger 7-62, Andrew Anderson 3-12, Brian Schaf 5-4, Brian Alderin 1-(-)1. SC - Wyatt Knell 12-92, R.J. Miller 14-44, Jacob Adducci 5-40, Zane Miller 5-36, Judah Coleman 4-10.

PASSING: C-S - Berger 4-5-0, 77 yards. SC - Knell 5-12-0, 18 yards.

RECEIVING: C-S - Tyler Price 2-58, Joey Barth 1-18, Henke 1-1. SC - Coleman 2-13, R.J. Miller 2-2, Mitchel Nickolauson 1-3.

INTERCEPTIONS: None.

Records: C-S 1-0, SC 0-1.