Billings Central's touchdowns trumped Laurel's field goals in Saturday's Eastern A football showdown.

The Rams emerged from the defensive struggle with a 15-6 victory in front of 4,000-plus fans at Wendy's Field at Daylis Stadium - a win that puts them in position to control the league race and obtain the home field throughout the Class A playoffs.

It was also the third straight week that No. 1-ranked Central has beaten the No.2-ranked team.

Central shares the league lead with Sidney at 2-0, but owns victories over Miles City and the Locomotives, teams the Eagles have yet to play.

The game was a tale of two halves. Central gained just 33 total yards in the first two quarters and fell behind 6-0 when the Locomotives' Ethan Albrecht booted field goals of 32 and 30 yards.

But Central owned the second half, putting together scoring drives of 57 and 60 yards in the fourth quarter. Cole Moller's 13-yard pass to Cole Cattelan got the first touchdown with 9:59 remaining. Cattelan's one-yard plunge and his pass to O'Brien for a two-point conversion with 13 seconds remaining sealed it.

"Our defense did a tremendous job of keeping us in the game,'' said coach Jim Stanton. "We had no answer. They manhandled up front on offense. We didn't have a first down and that's never happened. They took us to it us hard. I was proud of our kids. They never quit. They kept fighting and we got some things going and they went with it.''

Central didn't get a first down until the final play of the first half. But Kevin O'Brien and Max Tolstedt began to find some running room in the second half. O'Brien gained 50 of his 59 yards and Tolstedt picked up 38 of his 54 in the last 24 minutes.

"Laurel's a tough team,'' O'Brien said. "We learned that early. We came out, we battled in the second half. We pounded it and got back to what we're used to doing and that's the run game.''

O'Brien broke of an 18-yard run to jump-start the first scoring drive. Moller also hit Bridger Smith with a 12-yard pass and O'Brien came back with a 12-yard burst to give the Rams a first down at the Laurel 11. Cattelan was spilled for a two-yard loss by Jordan Adams, but on third down, Moller found Cattelan over the middle for the score.

"Got to the post, wide-open in there, nothing to it,'' Cattelan said. "No one was defending that post at all.''

Kaleb Suek's extra point gave the Rams the lead and the defense never let the Locomotives get anything going. Laurel ran just 15 plays in the second half and finished with a minus 1 yard of offense.

"I'm very proud of our team. It was a very hard-fought game,'' said Laurel coach Mike Ludwig. "Billings Central's a good football team. It just came down to field position at the end. Our offense really struggled. I take complete full blame for not able to get our offense going and getting first downs. We just weren't able to get field position and that really hurt us.''

The Locomotives only crossed midfield once in the second half, but quickly had to punt when Dylan Kramer was thrown for a three-yard loss to the 50-yard line.

Laurel's offense looked good early, but couldn't get the big play to get in the end zone. The Locomotives second series ended on downs at the Rams 19. After an interception by Corey Bummer, the Locomotives moved from their own 47 to the Central 15 where the drive stalled. Albrecht's field goal made it 3-0 at the 10:11 mark of the second quarter.

On the next series, Laurel reached the Central 14, but again had to settle for another Albrecht kick.

The Locomotives had another chance just before halftime, advancing to the Central 18 before a Cattelan interception killed the drive.

"We just needed to finish our drives,'' Ludwig said. "We just couldn't get in the end zone. We were close a couple times, at least we came away with points which was good. I was hoping to come away with some points at the end of the half right before we threw the interception. If anything, get three more points up on the scoreboard. It just didn't happen.''

Laurel picked up just 72 yards on the ground. Leading rusher, Jake Miller, was limited to just 34 yards on 11 carries. He came in averaging 91 yards a game.

Central finished with 190 yards total offense to 147 for Laurel.

Central 15, Laurel 6

Scoring plays

Second quarter

Laurel - Ethan Albrecht FG 32 10:11

Laurel - Albrecht FG 30 4:33

Fourth quarter

Central - Cole Cattelan 13 pass from Cole Moller (Kaleb Suek kick) 9:59

Central - Cattelan 1 run (Kevin O'Brien pass from Cattelan) 13.1

Team statistics

	Laurel	Central
First downs	7	12
Rushes-yards	33-72	42-150
Comp-Att-Int	5-13-1	5-12-1
Passing yards	75	40
Total yards	147	190
Punts	7-35	6-36
Fumbles-Lost	1-0	1-0
Penalties-Yards	4-30	1-5

Rushing - Laurel: Jake Miller 11-34, Dylan Kramer 8-19, Joe Barta 9-10, Albrecht 3-10, Jordan Adams 2-minus 1. Central: O'Brien 12-59, Max Tolstedt 14-54, Cattelan 13-35, Moller 1-6, Quinn Huppert 1-0, Justin MacDonald 1-minus 4.

Passing - Laurel: Kramer 1-2-0-3, Barta 4-11-1-72. Central: Cattelan 1-3-1-3, Moller 4-9-0-37.

Receiving - Laurel: Brian Flotkoetter 3-45, Corey Bummer 3-30. Central: Ryan Toner 3-15, Cattelan 1-13, Bridger Smith 1-12.