Part of what makes the Century football team successful is its players' ability to use one another's success to their advantage. When one Diamondback makes a big play, the rest get an emotional boost and start to make big plays themselves.

"What's exciting is that everyone does stuff, and they feed off each other," coach Nate Borchert said. "Eventually, you have 11 guys just pounding away because they feed off everyone else's energy and play-making ability."

There aren't many who have more of either one of those than senior running back/linebacker Terrance Quenton.

Whether it's breaking a long run or coming up with a key defensive play, Quenton has the potential to provide Century with a boost at almost any point in the game.

"Terrance brings that intensity," Borchert said. "It's just a spark, one of those things that makes things happen. You know he's going to pop a huge play. Just having him out there with his intensity and his athleticism, he's going to spark you at some point, offensively or defensively. You never know when it's going to happen, but you know it's going to happen."

Quenton's presence is one reason why some people believe the Diamondbacks (4-3) are the favorites to win the 4A Fifth District title at 8:45 tonight at Holt Arena against city and district rival Pocatello (2-5). That's a change that Quenton's been waiting for since he first started playing at Century.

Before the year started, Quenton remarked that the talk around Century students had been nothing but negative when the Diamondbacks would play Pocatello. When Century went up against Highland last month, he heard the same thing from people expecting that the Diamondbacks would not only lose, but not even compete.

He's not hearing any negativity now.

"This game, everyone thinks we'll beat Poky," Quenton said. "Everyone's on our side for this game, so our whole team's pumped up. We know we can go out and win like everyone thinks we will. After we barely lost against Blackfoot, who's the best team in the state, everyone knew we had a good team."

A big part of that is Quenton, who's provided matchup problems for almost every team Century's faced this season. When the Diamondbacks went south to Preston for a district contest, Indians coach Shawn Marlow noted that stopping Quenton would be the biggest key to the game and they wanted to keep him from beating them.

It didn't matter. Quenton only carried the ball seven times, but one of those seven was a touchdown run. If that wasn't enough, he also hauled in four passes to keep the Diamondbacks' offense moving.

"Terrance is a fiery, explosive (player)," linebacker Nate Wall said. "No matter what he does, he's going 110 percent. He's going to do it in a way that's going to hurt you. He runs the ball and tackles the ball, so he knows both aspects of the game. He runs fast and hits hard."

Quenton said that's just the way he was brought up. That's why Borchert wouldn't be surprised to see Quenton playing on Saturdays next year.

"Idaho State's showing a lot of interest in him," he said. "In my opinion, I think he's a real good fit for Idaho State if they want him to play there. He's a good player. He's just got to put on some weight, but that's typical of high school kids. He's got the ability to play some place."

But if Quenton, who's also been contacted by programs such as Arizona, Utah and Stanford, gets his way, that place will be on the other side of the Gem State.

"I want to go to Boise," Quenton said. "They have a really good football program, it's not too far away from home and I like their blue turf. It looks like it would be fun to play on."

If the Diamondbacks can win three games in the state playoffs, Quenton might get the chance to end his high school career on the blue turf of Boise State's Bronco Stadium in the state title game.

For now, though, the goal for Quenton and the rest of the Diamondbacks is to win a district title before they think about a state title.

"The program's developing," Borchert said. "The first part of developing a quality program is winning a district championship. Once you're capable of winning a district championship, your next step that you need to look at is a state championship. But we've got to take care of Step One first."