Tualatin and Central Catholic ready for 6A state title showdown

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — This Friday on Portland’s CW the 6A state football championship game will feature two of the top programs in the state over the past few years.

Central Catholic has been a mainstay in that game over the past decade.

“It feels really good. There’s no question about that,” said Rams’ head coach Steve Pyne about getting back to the title game after falling in the semis last season. “Not in my wildest dreams did I think we’d get there once. Let alone six times in the last ten years.”

The Rams have had results in that game as well, winning four of those five previous contests.

“It would be super awesome,” said Central Catholic senior quarterback Cru Newman of ending his senior season with a win. “Not just for me, but for the younger group. To serve as role models. To serve as a standard and really just pave the path for the future.”

Tualatin is still in search of their first state title in program history, but they feel they’ve played the schedule this year to pull it off.

“This is our 13th game, and this is essentially our 13th playoff game,” said Tualatin head coach Dominic Ferraro. “Every single team that we’ve played this year made the playoffs. We’ve been in this heavy weight fight for 13 weeks. It’s like, ‘What’s one more week?’ It’s so normal for us.”

For Central, their path to the state title game included an instant classic in the semifinals with a 12-7 win over #1 seeded West Linn last Friday.

“A saying we have every game, especially at halftime is 0-0,” said Central Catholic lineman Matix Carpenter. “We go into the half, and we say 0-0 because we haven’t done anything yet. We haven’t won the game. Having that come to life in our last West Linn game where it really was 0-0 at half even made it more special because we’ve prepared for this moment.”

“Central Catholic is going to be confident,” said Tualatin senior tight end Jayden Fortier. “They have a right to be confident after seeing us lose 40-0 to West Linn, and they just beat the defending state champions. But with our full offense back and getting one of our best lineman back, it’s going to be a fight, and I don’t think they realize that yet.”

That 40-0 loss against West Linn came in the regular season, but Tualatin was missing their starting quarterback Nolan Keeney in that game due to injury.

He had a legendary performance in the T’wolves 42-23 win in the semis last week against Sherwood.

“Nolan only threw 15 passes and 11 were completed and six of them were for touchdowns, so any time over 50% of your passes are touchdowns, it’s going to be a good game,” said Tualatin senior wide receiver and safety AJ Noland.

Having Keeney back has also freed up Noland, who was playing out of position at quarterback for the T’wloves while Keeney was out.

“It’s been awesome to have him back for a lot of reasons,” said Ferraro of Keeney. “You get AJ Noland going back out at receiver. AJ’s one of the top receivers in the state in my opinion, and he’s proven it in the playoffs.”

But Noland, Keeney, and everyone else on Tualatin will have their hands full as they go against a Central defense that only allowed West Linn to score seven points last week– The Lions’ lowest point total since the 2018 season.

“The play of the front, the play of our linebackers, the play of our secondary combined– They’re fast, they’re physical, they’re smart, they react well, they stick together. This is the best defense, for sure statistically we’ve ever had, maybe the best defense we’ve had top to bottom personnel wise,” said Coach Pyne.

This is also a rematch of the 2021 state championship game, which Central Catholic won 44-14.

Jayden Fortier hasn’t forgotten.

“I think it runs deeper with Central Catholic just because of the magnitude of the game. It was a state championship, and they had their backups in on us. I think we took that as a little disrespectful, so we’re excited, and we’re going to be ready to go,” said Fortier.

The biggest thing Jayden remembers from that game though?

The seniors on his team crying in the locker room after the loss.

“I still talk to most of them and everything they’ve been saying is, ‘You’ve got to go get it for us.’ I plan on doing that,” said Fortier.

“I’m sure they’re looking for revenge, so we’ll be ready,” added Newman.

Central Catholic and Tualatin face off in the 6A state title game on Portland’s CW Friday at 12:30.

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