Hitting the road for its second conference game of the season, Philomath High’s football team had a promising start Friday night in Independence, moving the ball downfield on the game’s opening drive with a mix of runs and passes. But Central came up with a red zone stop, and the Warriors missed a 25-yard field goal attempt wide left.
Philomath’s defense then stuffed the Panthers and got off the field fast on a three-and-out.
Gallery: PHS football at Central (Sept. 25, 2026)
A collection of photos from Philomath High’s 38-0 football loss at Central High in Independence at Friday.
But not much went right for the visitors the rest of the way. Central erupted for 31 first-half points, opened the second half with an 85-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and posted a 38-0 homecoming victory in a Special District 2 matchup.
“That’s a tough loss, but again, it’s a situation where we played against an experienced team,” Philomath coach Alex Firth said. “I mean, they’re coming down from 5A and they looked like a 5A team physically. We’re just young and we’re going to make mistakes.”
Before any football was played, the two teams paused in memory of the 6-year-old son that Central head coach Joel Everett lost to cancer this past Sunday. Under a pregame agreement, each team’s players locked arms and took a knee while the Panthers were flagged for delay of game. Philomath declined the penalty.
“I want to offer condolences to their head coach, whose son passed away on Sunday,” Firth said. “It was to celebrate his son’s life and bring awareness to childhood cancer.”
Philomath got approval from the Oregon School Activities Association to wear yellow uniforms in recognition of childhood cancer awareness.
“Our kids were proud to wear yellow tonight to show support,” Firth said.
After trading possessions early, Central (2-3 overall, 1-1 Special District 2) built momentum with a punt return to the Philomath 49. The Panthers started to find success on the ground, and despite a sack by Warriors senior Chase Leslie-Morrison, they kept moving the chains. Junior Braden O’Sullivan scored on a 7-yard run with 37 seconds left in the first quarter, one play after Central recovered its own fumble in the backfield.
Philomath picked up a couple of first downs on its third possession, including a 25-yard pass from senior quarterback AJ Altishin to senior wideout Kaden Howard, but penalties and four straight incompletions stalled the drive at the Central 31.
“I thought we moved the ball with some consistency,” Firth said. “I guess the issue was that when we would have an opportunity, we would have a penalty or a dropped ball or something like that. … I don’t think there was anything schematically that they did to affect us. It was just that there were plays to be made. We just didn’t make them.”
The Panthers took a 14-0 lead with 9:30 left in the half on a 41-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Hunter Holestine to senior receiver Ryan Perkins. O’Sullivan ran up the middle for a 5-yard score at the 6:55 mark, and Perkins returned a punt 55 yards for a touchdown with 4:32 remaining in the half.
Central got the ball one last time with under 2 minutes left before halftime and quickly reached the Philomath 10 on several chunk plays. An intentional grounding penalty on first down pushed the Panthers back, but sophomore Jacob Bancroft made a 30-yard field goal as time expired for a 31-0 halftime lead.
Defensively, Firth said Central found something that worked and stuck with it.
“They ran a little jet sweep on us, and they would then go wildcat in formation we hadn’t seen,” he said. “We had struggled with that, so you know it was just some things to adjust at halftime.”
Firth also pointed to the matchup up front, where Philomath starts two freshmen on the offensive line.
“They had a senior opposite them who was just a handful, and so it’s just a situation where our youth started showing, especially along the point of attack, and they took advantage of it,” Firth said. “That’s the difference between a team that’s senior laden and a team that’s got a bunch of freshmen.”
Perkins opened the second half with an 85-yard kickoff return for his third touchdown of the night, pushing the lead to 38-0 and triggering the mercy rule’s running clock with 11:19 left in the third quarter.
As a result, Philomath had just three possessions the rest of the way. In the fourth quarter, senior Bryce Hruska recovered a fumble to give the Warriors one final chance, and junior Dreyton Nuño provided a late highlight when he caught a pass from junior Jayce Iverson, reversed his field and scampered 25 yards for a first down.
Firth said he expects the mistakes to decrease as his young roster gains experience.
“It’s just something that as our kids mature, we’ll make less of, and we’ll be able to physically control the point of attack,” he said. “So it’s just our youth that starts showing up at points in the game and it bites us a little bit.”
Philomath (2-3, 1-1) will play its homecoming game at 7 p.m. Friday against Cascade.
Central 38, Philomath 0
Friday, Sept. 25, at Central HS, Independence
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | F |
| Philomath (2-3, 1-1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Central (2-3, 1-1) | 7 | 24 | 7 | 0 | 38 |
Note: The running-clock mercy rule went into effect with 11:19 left in the third quarter.
FIRST QUARTER
CHS — O’Sullivan 7 run (Bancroft kick), 0:37
SECOND QUARTER
CHS — Perkins 41 pass from Holestine (Bancroft kick), 9:30
CHS — O’Sullivan 5 run (Bancroft kick), 6:55
CHS — Perkins 55 punt return (Bancroft kick), 4:32
CHS — FGA Bancroft 30, 0:00
THIRD QUARTER
CHS — Perkins 85 kickoff return (Bancroft kick), 11:19
4A SPECIAL DISTRICT 2
STANDINGS—Cascade 2-0, 4-0; Estacada 1-0, 3-1; Stayton 1-1, 3-2; Central 1-1, 2-3; Philomath 1-1, 2-3; Gladstone 0-1, 0-4; Molalla 0-2, 1-3.
SCORES—Sept. 25: Cascade 81, Molalla 0; Estacada 45, Stayton 20; Central 38, Philomath 0; The Dalles 37, Gladstone 6.