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Something about the year ending with a 6 seems to be a positive sign for the Centralia High School football program.
For 2006: The Tigers marched all the way to the Class 2A state championship game in the Tacoma Dome.
In 2016: They began the season with back-to-back wins by double digits.
And now in 2026: Centralia is off to a perfect start once again.
Powered by over 300 yards of offense, two turnovers and taking advantage of several short fields, Centralia threw the hammer down on R.A. Long to the tune of a 48-0 victory on Friday night at Tiger Stadium.
“They’ve really grown up and you can see the difference, especially tonight,” Tigers head coach Tyler Gedney said. “From start to finish, nothing went wrong. You love to see all the smiles.”
Only once since that ‘16 campaign has the Hub City seen a football team with more than two wins. They’re four quarters away from accomplishing another milestone when they trek to Sammanish for a Week 3 tilt.
Friday’s game was called after the first half. Per Gedney, the Tigers were going to put in all their junior varsity players for the second half if the Lumberjacks were willing to continue.
After discussions between AD’s Tim Ahern and Dewayne McCabe, the game ended a few minutes after the halftime whistle.
For years, it was Centralia on the end of one-sided losses. Through two weeks, it’s been the opposite.
“We’ve been through it all,” junior Bill Volavola said. “I love this group. We want this and we want to win.”
Volavola opened the game on the second play from scrimmage with a 55-yard rushing touchdown. The Tigers proceeded to recover the short kickoff and Volavola found paydirt again on a 36-yard toss from quarterback Caden Erickson.
Before two minutes of gametime passed, it was already 14-0.
“It meant a lot; I couldn't have done it without my linemen and my quarterback,” Volavola said.
Alex Frias added a 21-yard TD catch with 6:05 to go in the opening frame and Erickson bulldozed his way for a 1-yard score three minutes later. The final scoring drive was set up by a Frias interception and then a long catch by the junior.
Erickson started the second frame with his second rushing TD and found Volavola up the seam for a 38-yard touchdown to make it 41-0. Enzo Montee capped the scoring with a 42-yard dash to the endzone.
“We’re trying to be more balanced,” Gedney said after a true balanced game of 159 passing and rushing yards. “He (Erickson) has a great grasp where we can run whatever we want to run and he picks it up.”
Erickson threw just seven times, but completed five passes. He hit Frias three times for 85 yards and the rest went to Volavola. The sophomore has missed just four throws in six quarters.
“That guy is a dog for sure,” Volavola said.
Montee also came away with an interception defensively. Centralia held R.A. Long to only 41 total yards and two first downs for the night. Montee was flying around and made several hard tackles.
It fired up Gedney and the rest of the Centralia sideline.
“He was playing fast tonight and he was seeing it real well," Gedney said. “You can see (R.A. Long) was getting to the boundary.”
The Tigers also recognized the aforementioned ‘06 team at halftime, playing a highlight reel of the semifinal win. They faced a Prosser team who featured New Orleans Saints head coach and prolific signal caller Kellen Moore and his brother, Kirby.
This current group of Tigers is trying to make history of their own with two non-league games remaining before a date with Tenino on Oct. 2 to begin 1A Evergreen League play.
If Centralia wants to make the Class 2A playoffs, it has to finish top-two in the league and win 75 percent of its games.
Its path is starting to materialize slightly. Still, Gedney knows the end product is far from there.
“Not every game is going to be 48-0 at halftime,” Gedney said. “I got all the confidence in the world that they are going to come out the same way. They’ve got each other and they fight.”
