An awesome statistical night by itself doesn't make a performance sensational.

A truly special night is reserved for those occasions when an athlete faces repeated pressure situations and doesn't blink. Mikel Leshoure had one of those efforts Friday night as Centennial's football team beat Danville 40-13 at Champaign's Tommy Stewart Field.

Even those of us who are not rocket scientists by trade had a fair clue who was going to get the ball for the Chargers. The game plan was give it to Leshoure and let the opponent try to stop him.

Danville couldn't.

By the time Leshoure left the game with 8:09 remaining, he had carried the ball on 29 of the team's 35 running plays and had two of the team's five pass receptions.

That translates into possession for Leshoure on more than 75 percent of the Chargers' plays. Centennial's linemen started the surge forward and the 6-foot-2, 215-pounder took it from there.

He used his quickness to accelerate past the line of scrimmage and then relied on an assortment of jukes and head fakes to gain additional yards. When he ran straight up the middle, he simply lowered his head, kept his body low to the ground and ploughed forward for more gains.

By game's end, the junior had amassed 343 yards of offense, 282 via rushing. During one sequence, covering parts of three Centennial straight possessions, Leshoure was handed the ball on eight successive plays.

To be the focal point of the opponent's defense and to excel at the level Leshoure achieved against the Vikings, qualifies as a sensational performance.

Danville native Mike McDonnell, the Centennial head coach, couldn't be happier.

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