Centralia wins thriller over St. Mary's to advance to semifinals in football

The Centralia Panthers advanced to the 1A State semifinals with a 20-14 home win against St. Mary’s. The Panthers never trailed and won the turnover battle 2-0 with a pair of interceptions by Quentin Alderfer, who sealed the victory with a redzone INT in the final minute.

Alderfer also stole the show on offense for the Panthers with 256 yards rushing on 36 carries and he scored all three Centralia touchdowns and added one conversion that provided an 8-0 lead early in the second quarter. Trace Haug then recovered a squib kick, but the Bears made a fourth down redzone stop at the 12-yard-line on fourth down.  

Despite the mistakes and also coming up empty on their opening 10-play drive that ended at the Centralia 17-yard-line, St. Mary’s never went away and pulled within 8-6 on a Parker Heim six-yard quarterback run to cap a 12-play drive late in the first half. St. Mary’s

The Panthers dominated field position in the third period and made it a 14-6 advantage with Alderfer taking in a dazzling 19-yard TD. After forcing a quick punt, the next Centralia drive looked promising, but St. Mary’s made four stops within the five-yard-line to keep it a one-score game. However, early in the fourth, Alderfer ran 10 yards for his third trip to end endzone capitalizing on a short field to make it 20-6. 

The Bears answered this time with a Heim dime hitting Jace Hurla on a 34-yard touchdown pass and with Heim’s conversion run it was 20-14 with 7:28 remaining in the game. Centralia recovered an onside kick and ran 13 plays and converted twice on fourth down (including their second freebie of the night on an encroachment penalty), yet with 1:27 to go, St. Mary’s again made a goal-line stand and stopped four plays inside the 10-yard-line to get the ball back.

The Bears (with no timeouts remaining) quickly completed four passes moving from their own four-yard-line to the 19 of Centralia. However, the potential tying or game winning drive ended when Alderfer stepped in front of a pass to push the Panthers record to 8-3 with their third straight home win and advance to play at Rossville in Sub-State next week. It is the second state semifinal appearance in three years for Centralia who finished runner-up in 2024 and has not lost to a 1A school this year.  

Degan Ronnebaum added 46 yards rushing and the Panthers overcame seven penalties for 65 yards in the victory improving to 15-7 all time against St. Mary’s.

St. Mary’s ended a solid year at 4-7 after starting the year 0-5 and losing all their games to bigger Big East League schools. Heim was 10-20 passing for 168 yards while the Bears ran for 126 yards. Hurla had 33 yards rushing on 7 carries and hauled in 7 receptions for 114 yards.