Will history repeat itself for Central Catholic? Rams won 2019 state championship — as the No. 4 seed

This year's team compares favorably on paper, but to rank with the 2019 champions, these Rams also need to close the deal.

By René Ferrán | Photo by Leon Neuschwander

For once Friday night, Riley Williams was at a loss.

The Central Catholic junior had just played a big part in the Rams’ 38-20 victory over Clackamas at Hillsboro Stadium that wrapped up the Mt. Hood Conference championship.

The Rams head into the postseason as the No. 4 seed in the Class 6A state playoffs, looking to repeat their run to the 2019 championship from that same seed.

How good is this team compared to 2019? he’s asked.

“Umm, man, that’s a hard question,” Williams said, laughing. “The 2019 team, that’s a good team. Silas Starr, Elijah (Elliott), all those guys there.”

Finally, he concluded, “We’re up there.”

Unlike the 2019 team that lost twice during the regular season, this team enters the postseason undefeated — the first time the Rams ran the table in the regular season since 2013.

That’s not the only place where this year’s edition compares favorably with the 2019 champions.

“I think that defensively, we’re a little bit more physical and have a little more speed than that team did,” Rams coach Steve Pyne said. “Our scheme’s a little bit different than they were then with a new D-coordinator (Matt Jones, who took over during the spring season), and the kids are believing in it.”

The offensive firepower of both teams is quite similar. The 2019 team had, as Williams mentioned, two elite players in Starr (now at Stanford) and Elliott (Montana State) and was led by first-team all-state quarterback Cade Knighton.

This year’s team also has an elite wideout in senior Jordan King, who sat out almost all of Friday’s win with an ankle injury suffered in the Rams’ Week 8 victory over Gresham. In senior Ellis Bynum and sophomore Cru Newman, they also have a running back-quarterback tandem in the backfield to match Elliott and Knighton.

It’s at tight end where this year’s team has it all over the 2019 squad.

“No offense to Ethan Flynn and Jaden Ridgeway, but they’re not Riley Williams,” Pyne said.

Williams is an elite talent, the state’s No. 1 junior recruit and ranked No. 4 at his position nationally for his class. He displayed his array of skills before an ESPNU national audience Friday, catching four passes for 106 yards and two touchdowns.

“That gives you that extra little dynamic,” Pyne said. “I mean, that 2019 team was really good, but you know, you throw a Riley Williams into that mix in 2019 … ” 

Of course, to rank with the 2019 champions, this team needs to close the deal as well. The Rams’ postseason kicks off this Friday at home against Oregon City, the final at-large qualifier but moved up three spots to avoid a first-round matchup against Three Rivers rivals Lake Oswego, West Linn and Tualatin, the top three seeds in the bracket.

“In all the rankings this year, we’ve been placed lower, but that doesn’t matter on the field,” Bynum said. “Tonight, we showed that. This is great momentum, but next week, we could go home, so we don’t know yet. We’re trying to take it one week at a time.”

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