Ghaali Muhammad looked a little tired before the final snap of Friday’s City Football Jamboree.

But it didn’t change the Central senior’s intent.

Removing his hands from his knees, Muhammad rolled left behind quarterback Ryan Wallace and waited for the pitch. Muhammad took it and raced up the left sideline at Spratt Stadium, only to meet a wall of Benton defenders at the 15-yard line.

The Cardinals held.

“I was hoping to get into the end zone, and I should’ve got into the end zone. Sometimes plays don’t work out,” said Muhammad, the star of the preseason event including all four St. Joseph 11-man schools for the first time since 1986.

Photo by Zachary Siebert / St. Joseph News-Press / Purchase this photo

No official scores were kept, but Central easily defeated Bishop LeBlond and Lafayette in its first two quarters and had to settle for a 12-12 tie with Benton.

Central’s 2-0-1 unofficial mark should give them the bragging rights after Benton (1-1-1) won the last four regular season jamborees. Central had not participated since 2003.

“It was just a fun time for everybody for all the city teams to compete and get a different look than the scout teams,” said Muhammad, who ran for 129 yards on 13 carries, including six touchdowns, and added two catches for 20 yards and another score.

“But, yeah, we’re still going to claim bragging rights.”

Benton could’ve had a shot to unseat Central, if not for a poor finish to its second quarter against LeBlond (1-2).

With a 6-0 win in the first quarter against Lafayette, Benton took its 12 plays first against LeBlond and opened a 6-0 lead. Senior running back Jake Kretzer took a handoff on a “Statue of Liberty” play, shook one defender and scored from 7 yards out on Benton’s seventh play.

The Cardinals defense couldn’t maintain the lead.

LeBlond failed to score until its eighth play when quarterback Mike Lierz found Pat Lawhon uncovered down the right hash marks for a 29-yard touchdown pass. On the Golden Eagles’ 11th play, running back Ben Baker — who also saw significant time at quarterback — took a pitch on the right side, but Baker didn’t turn upfield to run. Instead, he lofted a pass to Lawhon, completely uncovered on the right sideline, for a 40-yard score.

“We don’t have a true drop-back quarterback, so we kind of have to do some things to get Pat the ball. We’ve just got to find the best way to do that,” LeBlond coach Drew Shinn said. “I wish we could’ve got off the ball a little better on the line that would’ve allowed us to get him the ball in a more conventional way.”

Benton turned up the pressure on Central in the final quarter, after the Indians walloped LeBlond and Lafayette by identical 18-0 scores.

Benton used two pitches around left end on option plays — Chris Puett ran one for 25 yards and Kretzer the second for 24 yards — to set up two scores against Central, beating the Indians’ left cornerback on both plays.

Trailing 12-0, Central went straight to Muhammad on its 12-play possession.

A 29-yard gain on a pitch play opened the Indians’ 12 offensive plays against Benton, and two plays later, Muhammad scored his sixth touchdown.

Muhammad found the end zone again from 14 yards out on Central’s seventh play to assure a tie. But the Indians stalled after that, and the final snap from the 26-yard line resulted in Muhammad’s 11-yard gain.

“You don’t want to give them no more bragging rights than they can get,” Kretzer said. “You don’t want to hear it, so it was good to stop them.”

Muhammad for sure can keep bragging rights against the rest of the city. While Lafayette, LeBlond and Benton have regular season matchups, Central plays 10 games in the Suburban League and won’t see its city rivals until next year, by which time Muhammad will have graduated.

“I don’t care if you’re for us or against us,” Central coach Tony Dudik said, “but you have to appreciate that young man’s talents.”

Assistant sports editor Ross Martin can be reached at rossmartin@npgco.com