By Andrew Mendler
Centennials Raheem Silcott (with ball) looks to make a pass to teammate Chase Peck who is down near the basket. The Chargers went on to defeat the Trenton Tigers 68-35 in junior high school boys basketball action.
At six-foot, four-inches, Chase Peck is one of the biggest junior athletes out there, no matter what sport he’s playing.
Earlier this year, as quarterback, he successfully led the Centennial Chargers football team to their third straight COSSA AAA junior boys championship.
Since then, he has turned his focus to the hardwood, where he and his Charger teammates are looking to defend their Bay of Quinte and COSSA junior boys basketball championships.
“We are undefeated so far,” said Peck. “We’ve got a great team.”
Last night, Peck and the rest of the Centennial Chargers were in action against the Trenton Tigers and showed why they are defending champs winning 68-35.
The win was their second of the season, which allowed the team to jump out to a quick 2-0 start.
Their first game resulted in a 48-22 win over the Quinte Christian Eagles.
“I was really pleased with our performance tonight, they all worked really hard,” said head coach Debbie Clare. “(We are) still working on a lot of skills but it was pretty good for the second game.”
Forwards Zach Mullins and Peck led the Charger attack, both putting up over 18 points.
In the first quarter, Peck scored 10 points and Mullins had eight, which helped Centennial gain, a 23-5 lead.
As dominate as he is, Peck is quite humble and said he doesn’t like too much attention.
“I don’t care about (statistics),” said Peck “As long as we win, I’m happy.”
The second quarter saw Clare start rotating her bench to make sure every player got in the game.
““I like to get all of the players in equally when we are up by quite a bit,” said Clare. “It was nice to see them all give an equal effort in the win.”
At halftime the game was all but over as Centennial lead Trenton 43-13.
In the end Peck finished with 24 points and Mullins scored 18, combining to score 42 of their teams 68 points.
When asked about why the team was so successful, Peck said it was their height that allowed them to play so well.
In order to take advantage of his height he said he needed to “get down low”. This allowed him and several of his teammates to dominate around the net on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball.
“We only had one three-pointer all game,” said Peck. “So we definitely used our size to our advantage.”
Their next game is on Tuesday, December 6th at Bayside Secondary School where they will look for their third win of the season.
Clare said the team’s goal is to successfully defend their Championship title and she feels a repeat is not out of the question.
“It’s a pleasure to work with these kids because they are all great kids and great athletes,” said Clare.