Central lives life of Reilly in win over Western

The "Battle of Seattle" turned into more of a "Showcase by the Sound" for Central Washington quarterback Mike Reilly.

The Wildcats rode the strong arm of Reilly to a 50-28 victory over Western Washington Saturday night at Qwest Field.

The NFL prospect completed 36 of 47 passes for 371 yards and four touchdowns and set a national record and a separate school record in the first quarter.

About his only error was an interception in the fourth quarter that halted his streak of passes without an interception at 184.

Reilly also scrambled nine times for 58 yards, giving him an offensive output of 429 yards.

"I'm just so proud of our guys," Reilly said. "This is really the first time all year that we've put together four really good quarters of football. Tonight we really put it all together."

Western quarterback Adam Perry wasn't bad either in the annual Seattle matchup of the state's two NCAA Division II schools. The senior from Longview completed 22 of 36 passes for 320 yards and two touchdowns and wasn't intercepted. He also ran a quarterback sneak for a 1-yard touchdown.

Attendance was 12,258, the second highest in the six-year series, topped only by the 16,392 in the inaugural game in 2003.

"This is a great place to beat them," said Central left guard Matt Coffman of Othello.

The victory improved 11th-ranked Central to 6-1 overall and 5-0 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Western dropped to 3-3, 3-2.

Central put the game away by scoring the final touchdown of the third quarter and the first of the fourth quarter to build a 43-21 lead. The touchdowns came after a 56-yard scoring pass from Perry to Pat McCann that closed Western's margin to 29-21 with 10:29 left in the third quarter.

Central moved ahead 36-21 when Reilly hit Johnny Spevak with a 7-yard touchdown pass with 6:42 to play and the conversion kick was good. Puyallup product Spevak, who also starts on the CWU basketball team, finished with a career-high 13 catches for 148 yards and two touchdowns.

Jerome Morris scored his second TD of the second half to make the lead 43-21 after the extra point was added.

Reilly's best quarter was his first, when he completed 14 of 16 attempts for 150 yards and two touchdowns. He broke two records — one school and one national — when he hit Sam Togar with a 10-yard TD pass with 59 seconds left in the first quarter for a 9-0 lead after the extra point.

He now owns the NCAA record for all classifications with a streak of 41 consecutive games with a touchdown pass. The touchdown pass was his 100th, breaking the CWU mark of 99 he shared with Jon Kitna, now with the Detroit Lions.

Reilly added another touchdown 14 seconds later on a 30-yard pass to Jamal Weens, a redshirt freshman from Cleveland High School after kicker Garrett Rolma recovered a fumble on the kickoff. Reilly has 103 TD passes.

Ex-Husky J.R. Hasty, who transferred from Washington to CWU this fall, left the game early in the second quarter with what appeared to be an injury to his left ankle. He gained 15 yards on five carries.

Central now has a six-game winning streak over Western Washington and a 5-1 advantage in Seattle. The Wildcats have a 62-33-4 edge in series.

Craig Smith: 206-464-8279