HS Football: Rainier finishes season with a win over stubborn Centralia

10/30/2025

Rainier 28, Centralia 14

(Centralia, WA) The Centralia Tigers picked up this game after deciding to forfeit to Tumwater in what would have been a rough game for the Tigers. Centralia continues to turn this program around and under Head Coach Tyler Gedney the last thing they wanted was to finish the year with a running clock loss.

Last year the Tigers were winless, this season they were 2-7 coming into this game counting the forfeit. So progress is being made as football is a very difficult sport to turn around after years of struggling to re-build especially after the 2 recent levy failures.

Rainier under 6 year head coach Andrew Bartell was happy to pick up another game. Bartell says they are in a young phase and have some big classes coming up and just getting his squad another game to compete was huge. Both teams also came in with the expectation of winning.

Centralia received the opening kick-off and on 4th and short the Tigers gambled and went for it only to get shut down short and turned the ball over on downs on their own 34.

The Mountaineers went right to work and in 3 plays Jayden Manibusan plowed in from the 1 for the score. Rainier went for 2 and QB Jackson Stockdale found Jaxon Boring for an 8-0 lead.

The Tigers would not waste time keeping pace with Bill Volavola returning the kick-off 62 yards from the Centralia 18 to the Rainier 20. On the very next play the Tigers QB Caden Erickson handed the ball to fullback Hayden Holtgrew and a big hole opened up as he sprinted 20 yards in for the score. The 2 point play failed but the Tigers were on the board trailing 8-6.

Rainier would get the ball back after an exchange of possessions with just seconds to go in the 1st quarter. After a running play for 3 yards time ran out of the opening quarter. On the 1st play of the 2nd quarter, Stockdale dropped back to pass and breaking free down the far sideline was Jordan Pringle who found himself wide open. Stockdale threw up a perfect lob that Pringle grabbed and outran the Tigers defense for a 58 yard scoring strike. Manibusan then ran in the PAT to give the Mountaineers a 16-6 lead.

That would be the score at halftime and Rainier began with the ball to start the 2nd half on their own 30. They would cover all 70 yards with Dorien Cano finishing off the drive with an 8 yard blast into the end zone. The PAT failed and Rainier pushed their lead to 22-6.

The Mountaineers and Tigers would trade possessions with Rainier getting the ball back with 33-seconds to play in the 3rd. It would be an 8 play scoring drive with Pringle capping it off with a brilliant run and diving in as he was getting tackled for the score. The 2 point conversion failed and Rainier led 28-6 with 7:30 to play in the game.

Centralia refused to throw in the towel and answered quickly with a 4 play drive ending with Erickson hitting Alex Ahern for 6. Malcolm Tukes ran the ball in for 2 to make it 28-14.

Rainier then put the game away with a long drive burning up most of the clock and the final score would be 28-14. The Mountaineers finished the year with a win and a 4-5 overall record. Centralia finished the year 2-8.

The Thorbeckes MVP of the game award went to Jordan Pringle. Pringle finished with 4 catches for 134 yards and a TD and had one rush for 22 and another score.

Link to watch the full game replay on the NFHS Network (Subscription required)

ESN Postgame Show