Ten area prep football games to jot down as appointment viewing

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, July 28, 2026

It’s almost here.

There’s nothing quite like a fall Friday night in Lewis, Thurston and Grays Harbor Counties. From stands – and even the track – filled to the brim with fans, to the clashing of the helmets from a run-first mindset most of the football programs aim to establish.

Football season is just around the corner. The first day of practices begin on August 19 and then Week 1 starts the journey to a state championship on September 4.

With that in mind, here are 10 games, in no particular order, to put on the radar for the 2026 campaign.

Toledo at Adna, Week 1

This has been the season-opener for the third consecutive fall and it was a game away from being the Class 2B state championship last December.

The Riverhawks, the state runner-up, will have several new faces on both sides of the ball. Nico Acosta is the biggest contributor back as the C2BL East Defensive Player of the Year and Coach Mike Christensen will have a new quarterback for the first time in three years.

For the Pirates, their offense returns nearly everybody including tailback Beau Miller, QB Trevin Salme and do-it-all weapon Kannen Kephart. The offensive line brings back three starters, but the ginormous question looming for coach Aaron Cochran is who lines up at RT and LT.

Oakville at Morton, Week 1

For the first time in over two decades, Morton will take the field as the Huskies and make their 8-man debut at home. Coach Lee Metcalf brings back several contributors from the 2025 Morton-White Pass squad that contended for a playoff berth, including sophomore Liam Pelletier. As an honorable mention, White Pass will also be at home in Week 1 facing Chief Leschi.

The Acorns were riddled with injuries in 2025 and suffered more in games. It will be a new-look Oakville squad with heavy hitters like Gio Rodas, Ben Kimbrel and Lewis Koser gone to graduation. It did make a crossover last season.

W.F. West at Columbia River, Week 4

An offseason that featured league realignment – kind of – ended with most of the Evergreen Conference and the entire Greater St. Helens League to merge for football only in 2026 and 2027. The Bearcats and Rapids open the new league on September 25 in a Round of 32 rematch from last year’s state playoffs.

It’s an even year for W.F. West, which has traditionally been kind to its team with 2A state semifinal trips in 2022 and 2024. Quarterback Wyatt Hoffman returns as the 2025 overall EvCo MVP and four other all-league guys are also expected back.

Also this week are Tumwater facing Woodland and Hudson’s Bay taking on Black Hills.

Adna at Onalaska, Week 3

The running back matchup of Miller for the Pirates and Ethan Thayer for the Loggers makes it a box office game by itself. Where this game is on the schedule will also provide an early sense of where the two sides stack up in the 2B hierarchy.

Adna’s Week 2 opponent is Seton Catholic, then it faces Bellevue Christian in Week 4 before getting into C2BL West play. Onalaska also faces Seton Catholic plus gets 1A semifinalist Mount Baker in Week 5 and another 1A foe in Meridian in Week 4.

For two sides that are loaded with returning talent, it could be a playoff preview at Onalaska Memorial Stadium.

Steilacoom at Tumwater, Week 2

A premier rivalry in the 2A postseason will renew in the regular season for the first time ever. The T-Birds and Sentinels last met in the COVID winter season in 2020, a 50-12 victory by Tumwater that acted as the de facto state title game. The two programs also met for the championship in 2019, also won by Tumwater.

Fifteen seniors are gone for the Thunderbirds, but several cogs still remain including EvCo Defensive MVP Grady Wall and Harvard recruit Ethan Bello. Tyler Briscoe and Wall are expected to handle the bulk of the carries on offense.

Centralia at Tenino, Week 5

This will be new territory for Coach Tyler Gedney’s Tigers as an unofficial member of the 1A Evergreen League for the next two years. While still maintaining their 2A status, their path to the postseason will need a top-three league finish.

That journey will begin against Tenino, which made it to the Round of 12 in the 1A playoffs and brings back Parker Minerich as a two-way star and Mason Metcalf will transition from QB to RB this fall.

Centralia won two games last fall versus R.A. Long and Vashon Island and will look to improve again with a re-tooled roster around a junior class that returns three all-league honorable mentions.

Napavine at Onalaska, Week 2

Need we say much?

The meeting last year in Week 2 was a barn-burner that the Loggers secured a 22-19 victory thanks to a fourth quarter, fourth down pass from Lane Gordon to Haze Hamrick. Now they get to play at home for the chance at a two-year sweep of their highway rival.

Napavine changed its offensive philosophy once Grady Wilson was knocked out from playing QB and now must replace its signal caller and C2BL West MVP Caleb Von Pressentin.

Tumwater at W.F. West, Week 9

It’s become a yearly tradition where the winner of the T-Birds and Bearcats lock up the EvCo regular season title and it could be the case again in 2026.

The results have been one-sided, Tumwater has won 15 of the last 16 meetings. W.F. West has not beaten its league foe in Chehalis since 2003.

Montesano at Rochester, Week 7

While not as longstanding as the EvCo title-clinching game, the last two years between the Bulldogs and Warriors have been classic games that determined the 1A Evergreen League.

It was two years ago in the slop and mud at home that Rochester won a low-scoring thriller. Then last year, on the turf in Montesano, the Bulldogs forced a fourth quarter turnover and held on.

There’s a lot of heavy hitters from Rochester that are gone, including two-time Evergreen MVP Ethan Rodriguez. One of the catalysts coming back is Maddox Rodgers, a fearsome linebacker honored as the league’s Defensive MVP.

Napavine at PWV, Week 6

A potential sneaky game could be for either a C2BL West title or staying at home for the crossover round in Week 10 between the Tigers and Titans.

John Peterson goes into year two at PWV having to replace speed on the perimeter, but another year in the Wing-T could make for an improved offense. The Titans faced four 2B teams that made the playoffs last year and were outscored 175-6.