Junior Gunnar Gross made his quarterback debut by accounting for five touchdowns in Central’s 52-28 victory over the Salina South Cougars Friday night.

In his first varsity start at quarterback, Gross completed nine of 13 passes for 123 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. He also rushed for 64 yards and three touchdowns.

“I’m happy with how I played tonight,” said Gross, who threw touchdown passes to junior Dez Gibson and senior Talan Gary. “I feel pretty good, I’m just happy we were able to get the win.”

Like Gross, senior running back Kenyon McMillan had an explosive game. He rushed 18 times for 164 yards and one touchdown and also returned a kickoff and a punt for touchdowns.

The Mustang defense started out strong, holding South scoreless in the first half. But towards the end of the game they made a lot of mistakes, defensive coordinator Austin Kingsbury said.

“I thought we could keep the shutout, so giving up that many points in the second half was frustrating,” Kingsbury said.

The main focus throughout the game was stopping the run and forcing as many turnovers as possible, Kingsbury said. Pressuring the backfield played a big part in that.

“In the run game, really it was those guys up front,” he said. “Hunter Swolensky had a fantastic game and he was just really tough against the run.”

Swolensky, a senior defensive lineman, had five solo tackles and nine total in the Mustang win.